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I think the purple storm is you and I
Can't believe it takes so long to realize
What makes us, makes us, makes us come alive
Oh, what makes us come alive
Ooh, let's break some rules
No we don't always have to be good
I'm always after the things that we should
But feed the fire
Let's see it through
And let go of what's holding us back
Just let it up and we'll break through the past
And take it higher
It's your heart rushing
But when my heart's rushing
When you take it all in
Baby, this is where we come alive
Do you feel it?
Take the world first
You and I, you and I, can't believe it's so long to be alive
This is where we come alive, to be alive
Take the world by storm, just you and I
Can only attack so long to be alive
This is where it makes us, makes us, makes us
This is what I call a man
You can't take your breath away
Take your breath, strong, yes
You can't take your breath away
Take so long to realize
This is what I call a man
This is what I call a man
You're like a movie scene
Makes me forget everything
We were just kids playing like we knew the world
You've got your naming lights
You give me a reason to stay up all night
And we were just kids pretending that we knew the world
Don't leave me dry
I'm waiting for the clock to turn
Don't leave me dry
I know you've got a lot to learn
You like moving pictures on the big screen
You look at the feed
I can tell that I'm seeing
Won't you fit your hands on the big screen?
You like to move with your pictures on the big screen
You got the feeling of the 17s
Pictures on the big screen
Set back a joy show
Getting lost in the morning
Ever know ya
Kick your feet up
We've got time to lose
I'll be born in you behind
We pretend to be never died
There's no other place I can be with you
Completely dry
I feel like I've lost it all
Don't leave me dry, I watch you while the credits wait
You like moving pictures on the big screen
You look at me like a 17-year-old picture
You like moving pictures on the big screen
You look at the feeling of a 17, what you think,
jazz on the big speed.
Whoa.
You know I've got to wake up and dance
You know I've got to get up and dance
When I'm in the backyard, dance, dance
When I'm in the grave, I'll be dance
When I go back to sleep, I dance
In the realm of dreams, I dance
When I'm in the barn, I'll pass, dance
I've got a feeling, I can't shake, but I'ma try to shake it in the play.
I've got a move that I can't break, but I'ma break that thing in the play.
I'm gonna tell you twice, I'm gonna dance all night.
Like an recipe, we're gonna move our feet
We're gonna tell you twice, what we dance on
We're gonna work to be, whoa
You know I got you wake up and dance
You know I got to get up and dance
Oh, I'm in the bag of dance bands
And I'm in the grave of your dance
When I go back to sleep, I dance
In the realm of dreams I dance
When I'm empty on my past dance
When I'm caught off guard, I dance
Feeling the ceiling, feeling big
Don't tell your mama we're shaking big
Take the rule and do your thing
Bring your shoes, yeah, bring your things
Not gonna tell you twice, you're gonna dance all night
Not gonna rush the beat, we're gonna move our feet
Not gonna tell you twice, we're gonna dance all night
Not gonna rush the beat, yeah
You know I got to wake up and dance
You know I got to gain up and dance
When I'm in the elegant dance dance When I'm in the graveyard with dance
When I go to sleep, I dance In the realm of dreams I dance
When I'm in the boner dance dance When I'm caught off guard I dance
I
No doubt the same, cause we're all in, yeah, we're in the rush
Too late to change, we give mistakes, just give me your touch
I'm being it from the heart, I wanna be the light when it gets dark
I don't know what you done to me If I'm thinking about you, are you thinking
about me too?
I keep falling for you, can't help wondering If I'm thinking about you, are you thinking
about me?
You know what you done to me
If I'm thinking about you
Are you thinking about me too?
Are you falling for me?
And I wonder if
If I'm thinking about you
Are you thinking about me?
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You
Nothing was meant to
Meet distance, kept things apart.
The EMEA season kicks off at full throttle in 2026. Right after the conclusion of VCT EMEA kickoff
and before the start of Master Santiago, a brand new competition enters the arena,
Valorant EMEA Clash
With three VCT EMEA slots on the line for Masters Santiago
Six of the remaining nine teams will earn a chance to battle the best teams from the Challengers regions
Valorant EMEA Clash features two interconnected double elimination brackets Alpha and Omega
Each of these brackets will then crown its own champion
the top four teams from VCT EMEA kickoff will be seated directly into the second round of these brackets receiving a buy and the remaining two VCT teams will join six challenges teams in a shared pool from there a fully randomized draw will determine placements with one rule only the two VCT teams cannot land in the same bracket.
bracket. Starting from round two, a loss in the upper bracket of Alpha sends a team into the
lower bracket of Omega and vice versa. Every defeat reshapes the battlefield, forcing teams
to clash across the two worlds as the tournament progresses. As the event unfolds, Alpha and
Omega will continue to intertwine at every stage, keeping both teams and fans on edge.
Are you ready for Clash?
Tune in February 19th to the 25th and support your favourite team as two worlds collide
for the very first time.
Everybody
Come on, come on, come on, and let me breathe
Let me breathe
you
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You
the final day of kickoff.
Welcome back, everybody, where
we got the ultimate El Clasico
on the menu today as a battle
war fanatic takes on a surging
team liquid with the final
ticket to Santiago on the line
today. Only one of these two is
going to be heading to represent
today. Because the last best
of lives that we've had here at
EMEA have been absolute bangers.
I'm Ginny, joining with Kakaoka
and Billy and. What was yesterday?
What was that? What was yesterday?
What was the day before? Yeah,
we've been here forever, but
honestly with the quality of
valor and that we're seeing with
some of the games, some of the
performances as well. I think
that we have been treated. I am
personally loving and I think
it's been so exciting. I want
to go for 15 out of 15 today.
Can we get a little bit of
my mother? Okay. Yeah, but bed
and a sleeping bed. We are in
state right now. I don't even
want to hear that. We're in flow
state. We're enjoying the
ball in this being played. The
region is looking great. We've
had all the fans turning up to
the venue as well to the fourth
or favorite teams. It's honestly
just been such an iconic and
exciting kickoff. Yeah, and we
just saw my team there. Um, but
it's been so exciting. We've
I saw my team there yesterday.
He was absolutely insane.
Broke his own record that he said that day before.
So nonchalant.
Absolutely insane.
Like the feelings for Mates at the beginning
and then the first best of five were like,
oh, who is it going to be?
Is it going to be VBL Mates?
A lot of people had doubts in Mates being like,
oh, they haven't really played against the top teams in EMEA.
Well, tell them that after they beat Tannasic yesterday.
And they were burst swept them.
So not an easy thing to say to do, absolutely.
That's a highlight, Martín, even further,
because I saw this tweet this morning, it was like,
oh, look at me, I'm my team.
I'm a beautiful girl, I'm a really good avalanche.
Like, this is how good he is avalanche, okay?
Some people just got it all in this world.
Like, he's one of us.
I don't know that, really, I don't know that
because people, it's something you'll find out
to be able to see.
Martin in the last four to eight hours, 232 kills.
FNS in his VCT career from 2023 to 2025, 1,153 kills.
Martin just got almost 20% of FNS's career kills
in four to eight hours.
Now, two best of fives overtime would do that to me though.
I don't know if it's like that, but I wouldn't be having that if it was me.
I want to see him clap back to that.
I don't know.
He's missing it back in the server.
Maybe, maybe, maybe it's time to celebrate the new guard.
I think that Martinez, as we were saying, absolutely great performance.
And again, I want to highlight that I love this format.
I think that for the past few years, kickoff was like just an untrip for the rest of the years.
It's like, oh, wait to start.
We're going to see a lot of surprises.
But I think that this year is setting itself apart from the rest.
The only thing I would add on to this is less breaks and more of a feel of a tournament.
Like I wanted to be the tournament that it is and not afraid to feel like we're in regular season.
That's my feedback. All right. That's all I'm hearing but also we can't have to look at the
international stage now because we've already locked in two out of the three teams that we're
going to be sending. And for me personally, Billy, when I'm looking at VCT EMEA, it's BBL
the last time we sent any other
team that erratic liquid or
fanatic to international. Yeah,
it's really exciting. I think
that we kind of set this up the
past couple of days as well as
like seeing teams like a roster
for BBL that came up through
attention. You have gentlemen.
It was an organization that
obviously came up through
attention initially. It really
is a changing of the guard, and
I think as well when we look at
the other regions. Very exciting
as well to see those ones are
hopefully will be finished by
the time America starts. Yo
I mean, I'm not going to be
going to go ahead. I might be
are loses today. Absolutely
because I know that some people
are going to be celebrating
seeing call an who've also
going straight into the
place. I'm so happy for him.
Paper X this morning, guys. If
you did not see forsaken play
this morning, go back. I mean,
we will pause the show. No need
to see what we're thinking did
on the server today. Watch it
after the show because we
actually pretty exciting game
here. Okay. It's EMEA bring up
the bracket just so you guys
the bottom. Okay, we're like
lower bracket final fanatic
liquid for the last spot Billy
to go to master Santiago. See
they gotta be fanatic is he
gonna be liquid like how did
we even get here? I mean, at
least they have an opportunity
right every other year we've
only been able to send two
teams to the first global
event. So now that each region
gets to send three teams is
super exciting kind of left
the competition a bit more
open this year, I feel as well.
Now, like you mentioned, we
have two giants going up
against one another and team
liquid and fanatic and what
And what amazing journeys that they've been on throughout this kickoff.
Yeah, and as we're saying, the past two weeks have been extremely exhausting for some of the teams.
We've seen a lot of hours of play just in these last three days alone.
And it's not easy. If you take a look at the numbers here, Fanatica has played six over times.
This is just the stats from kickoff. Both of the teams have played over 15 hours in the server.
You also have the kills. It's of course a lot of valorant in a very short span of time.
And honestly, for the site, especially of Liquid, it's funny that they're taking revenge to get onto this international global event.
And let's not forget, Fnatic played three of those over times yesterday, and now they're having to come in today and play a best of five?
That is tiring. That is super tiring.
But also, at the end of the day, if any team has the resources and just the systems in place to be able to deal with this, it is going to be a team like Fnatic.
They are, as you're in touch upon, giants. They are experienced. They know how to do it.
to be able to do it. Yes, of
course, it's going to be a
little bit difficult because
it went all the way to that
final round of the final map,
and it's going to be a little
bit heartbreaking, but they'll
reset. They'll bounce back
because. Alpha's ready to go.
Yeah, he's ready to go. I think
that for most of the players
we're looking at Vickers right
now. He had an amazing
performance yesterday. We love
to see that the vives are still
viving on the side of fanatic.
We speak about all the time
about the experience that they
have. They can bring into the
server and that they're not
going to get tired. We know and
How long some of this tournaments can be you're talking about alpha and what he said
He's speaking about wanting to break the second seed curse. So just go 13 easy listen
Yeah, okay, but but the thing is like last year was a very complicated year for them in the sense of like, you know
It was a good year to think about it because they were runner-ups for many things, but that's the problem
They were just runner-ups. I remember the final of EWC which which happened same as yesterday either and
team heritage managed to reverse
with them and it ended up in a
year with no wins for Bernadette, but a
lot of second places. This would be
technically a fourth spot if they were
not to win, but it would be the same kind of
feeling of being so close within
touching distance of getting what you want and not being able to get it.
And I think as well to speak about their journey
throughout this kickoff, this time round,
like they dropped into that middle bracket
after their first game, right? They lost
against BBL in the first game that they played
and now they've had to journey through the whole middle bracket
the first two opening games
in the first place. They
have the first two open
bracket. Make it that middle
bracket finals yesterday, and
now they've dropped into this
lower bracket in a lower
bracket where team liquid has
been sitting pretty comfortably.
They have one. I think at this
point, five games back to back
back in this lower bracket
question remains, considering
they are no strangers to making
these runs. If this is enough
for them to actually qualify
through an to an international
through that lower bracket
again. That's the thing like
we have to think about their
burning throughout this
kickoff, right? They lost
They of course met in this middle bracket earlier on and kickoff and they've had to have a lower bracket run all the way to this point
They've been able to kind of sit back and chill out whilst that best of five was on yesterday
Regained that energy a bit quicker than what finatic will have been able to consider how late we went last night
And like you said, this is completely
Or good or ordinary territory to them because they are so used to having lower bracket runs
Especially when we think about last year's kickoff thing just another day in the office for like would wish scary though to if you look at it
that way, because they played
that first game against Vitality yesterday.
Goodbye, Vitality.
They, of course, they have to come in today as well,
and they had to watch the Best of Five series yesterday
against, from Fanatic.
It went all the distance as well,
but I do feel like it's different
when you're watching it, prepping for the game
that's coming up, and you're actually in the server playing it.
You're so stressed, you're so zoned in.
Yeah, I also think that at the end of the day,
the momentum that Tlilikert has found right now
is like, okay, we started the tournament
with all of these pieces,
them thinking about how we're going to utilize them best, how people are going to be comfortable
playing within the server. And now it's looking like they found the right key and they keep
pressing it. For many boys W, keep pressing it. It's absolutely beautiful. Keep doing it.
For Nats is pressing the key push to talk because it's really the speeches that he's
been giving to the team in very Nats fashion. But the team has also been very positively
responding to it. I do feel like that has such a huge impact on them as well. So let's see
See how they actually are reacting to these speeches.
These two maps, I really want us to play our game, the game that we actually enjoy to play.
Let's not think that confidence we came to in the morning of the day. Let's bring that confidence.
Let's not let affect what happened last map. I think where the coaches cannot prepare us, we will win this map, right?
I also want us to focus on each other, okay?
Focus be the best version of yourself on the server and your team will become the better version of him, so, okay?
Guys, what are you doing guys?
Let's go boys, we're winning this map, okay? Let's go even a pack you can't do anything
Wait, I'm three times three times one two three
that peak, which is perfect timing.
You're in this lower bracket final.
You've had to have the lower bracket run.
You're potentially going to a global event.
We all know the things that Nats can do at a global event,
considering the amount that he's been to.
Play Waleigh?
Play Waleigh?
The performance.
Maybe I'll play the Waleigh.
I think we've made too many Nats Waleigh jokes,
but look at this.
Yeah, look at this.
Not enough, not enough.
Wait, wait until stage one.
But yeah, as we're seeing right here,
just look at the performance that we've been seeing from Nats
and how it's been going in Crescendo,
as you were explaining, Billy.
And if now he's in the point where
He can just focus on those those features that you will be crazy not to follow.
It's a great form to see this team look at the form.
I also think that Wayne has been having an amazing research.
Also, a quick PSA for everybody that is watching and that is sitting in the audience.
There's going to be an opening ceremony in a couple of minutes.
This stream is going to contain fast flashing images that may affect viewers
who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy and other photosensitive.
So your discretion is definitely advised.
But that's all from us here over on the desk.
We're going to be heading over to the lovely Luhu standing by with Wayne ahead of his game.
And when we talk about a crazy rise to VCT already on the doorstep of Masters,
we have to think about Team Liquid Wayne.
Thank you for joining me.
First of all, the first question I want to ask you may sound a little lame,
but I want to know how you're doing,
because over the past seven days, you played four officials onto the fifths.
So I want to know, you know, how you're handling this kickoff marathon,
especially as a rookie?
For me, I think it's pretty fun, actually.
It's my debut as a rookie in a whole different region.
And I think I'm going to treat it
as a learning experience for me.
So I want to play as much as I can to get a lot of reps
and try to get comfortable.
Yeah, especially when you're a young player coming
into a new region, you want to play as many games as you can.
And that was my second question.
you kind of had this double pressure on your shoulders both you know first games in VCT but also
beginning in the new region so how have you been handling this over the past weeks? I think at
the start it was quite hard I mean like I wasn't like the most comfortable on stage yet but now I
think I'm pretty comfortable in like Saturday night so yeah. 1v5 against Vitality or actually
1v4. 1v4 on my butt but yeah indeed and speaking about your teammates you know we often see nuts
making speeches at the beginning of maps like try to be the best version of
yourselves etc etc I want to know which impact it has on you and which
relationship do you have with your captain? I wouldn't say I feel like every
speech like has an impact on me like whatever he says because I feel like
he has so much experience in this type of things you know like high pressure
situations and I'm like new to this yeah so like basically whatever he says like
just like play our game like I think that impacts me a lot okay just focus on
our game and not how the enemy plays right focus on yourselves right yeah and
I think my relationship with him we've been like pretty close out and like he's
always like trying to like talk to me like seeing if I'm okay and like if I'm
playing bad he'll just always talk to me and make sure I'm okay yeah that's I
think that we can see it also on stage on camera because you're sitting next to
each other we see that there is a connection you know and my final
question is going to be for your opponent, Fnatic, you know, it's in with a huge experience, huge
stamina and stuff. Are you excited to play against them and is there maybe a specific player you
want to face? Is there anything you want to tell them that the mic is deep? I mean, I think I'm
really excited. I mean, because in kickoff, they are the only team I lost to. Yes. For now. Yeah.
And yeah, it would be nice to like get my revenge and like qualify for Masters. I think that would
be pretty cool yeah and I think like it'll just be nice to like just go
against like players like all of them actually because they've been like in
the scene for so long yeah and yeah it's just kind of nice to like realize that
I'm actually playing against like these people right when like few months ago I
was actually just watching them at Champs yeah like players that are known
worldwide you get to play against them and maybe also take their spot or your
spot in San Diego thank you so much for joining me Wayne good luck for today
And let's see now if Team Liquid or Fnatic take the final spot at Master Santiago.
Well, if I first Santiago, it was the main goal for me.
There's no easy games and everyone deserves to be here, but that's also what makes it fun, right?
I played overall from last year. We proved that we can handle the hard moments and this
is another hard moment for us.
two historic rivals one opportunity and no second chances in the last E&A final
Liquid were born to play the lower bracket and with one game remaining that right where they need to be
one round robbed fanatic and now they're one of Brent from oblivion
Overtime may have broken his heart, but not his will.
Back for one last shot of glory, GURR-A-CHEES!
20-25 was his year to grind, now witness redemption is purple!
Last time was the proof now for the punishment.
Oh, for you!
He's been leveling up all tournament in his final form.
to perform its cover!
In his battle for his eighth appearance on the global stage,
Agia Basta!
The only time today, he isn't plucking behind you!
Welcome now!
From underrated to unforgettable back-ups!
More likely to 1v5 than Batman himself introducing Monster Wayne!
And back to right the wrongs of his rookie year!
Give it up for Kyle!
He may be mini by name, but he'll strike fear into your heart.
It's Minibow!
And with the coaches, Milan and Lohan,
One last squad, it's Dustin for Santiago!
Alright, one more ticket to Santiago is already to get punched.
It will either be liquid or fanatic.
But to start things off, Billy, we need to look at the map, Biro.
We need to hope that most of these rockers are going to be sending themselves up for as much success as they possibly can.
stay past as we can, so that it starts things off with control.
Yeah, I think we should quickly touch on the bands, obviously both of them banning their
intra bands throughout this hip hop event, so far, and no surprises there.
I think the first thing that's going to start for me here is breathing.
It's been so late, given that the last time we saw a fantastic clip,
with a stash on the jet, it wasn't exactly anything that we could get excited about,
despite being excited in the agent select.
He did say it was going to be better in the future.
I'm intrigued to see why didn't we could have left it so late into this video.
I don't know what you think, Bea.
If Vekas is having the performance that he had yesterday, I would leave it for him last as well.
And I think it also has to do with confidence, to not forget the composition that Team Liquid have been running on FIND,
how that works for Mini-Boo and how he's able to snowboard from that onto the future.
So I actually like that. If you come away with a little bit of insecurities that we can see on the side of Fanatic on that map,
I think it's a good map to start things with from the side of the liquid.
For Fanatic, it makes a lot of sense that they want to go with the Corote again.
Remember, this is at the end of the day a rematch of the best of three we saw earlier in the tournament.
And yes, things have changed in Corode, especially for the side of Liquid,
in terms of composition, because they still have not found a win in that map.
Yeah, I think for Corode, right, they have moved a few years away from that level,
initiator composition, and leaned into their strengths of that level, Julian.
And while Tnatic had a shaky start up the top on that map, they've been able to clean it up since then,
it looks great. It has been individual Corodes, I feel, when we've seen this Corode come up from Tnatic.
But if they can continue to do that throughout this series that's going to be what helps them function for this event.
And when we think about performances that might snowball, Alpha could be one of them.
Do not forget some of the crazy, absolute madness rounds that he had yesterday on this Carode.
So I also think that it is a good testing round. Also Abyss being the third one.
That is meant to be such an interesting match.
Yes, because I think that most of the players from Finatic, what we saw against Vitality, they definitely have their numbers.
But Team Liquid have historically been so good on this map.
Seriously, like even last year, they still repeat many of the rounds that we saw in the past to this day,
but they still work. And do not forget, even though this is the best of five in technically the last day of the tournament,
it's a final, but it kind of feels weird because it's like the third part.
And there's been a lot of play in between. The time to prepare is close to none.
Yeah, I have to agree.
And I think to touch on the topic of best, that has obviously been a flawless map for Fnatic so far.
But Kurod, right?
Because it's up here already.
Tell me why you're screaming.
What do you mean? Why are you not screaming?
The Wayne stage?
Yeah, the Wayne stage. I was going to say the Wayne stage.
The Nuts Bramston.
Like, I don't know, where do I start?
The sky, purple in the sky.
There is a lot to unpack here.
And of course, we will have to wait until
they start playing to see how this is going to turn out.
Because if we speak about stopping power
with the Sage, with the Bramston
stage with a brainstorm and with two stunts or kind of a stunt if you think
about the double duelist I want to see how much of that is going to be selfish
play for the for the side of the liquid I think that they understood that there
were a little bit of gaps that probably the Cypher was just not good enough so
is the solution putting maps on brimstone? I want to know if the solution is to have
Camel, Mini-Boo on this waylion neon right because previously it was Camel
on the yaw route that they had kind of changed to which Miniboss such he is
such a good neon but coming into this I had kind of thought okay like they have a yoru they actually
have an agent that's going to be able to deal with alpha you know we've typed so much about how
amazing his bias has been and the stopping power that they have off of vokash on the k o
totally the thing that goes off against this weyley and neon it might have been it is so
team liquid pale that that's just playing a nager for the first time and such an important
mob it was the weyley and champs in today's brinston but that's a scary thing about liquid we've seen
them change our compositions all throughout the last two days. They haven't been sticking to what
we've seen from them, so for a team like Fanatic who likes to prep beforehand, what are you prepping
for the same brimstone neon? I mean, do not forget something that I had highlighted in these past
few weeks, whilst I would have had the slower bracket run, is that Team Liquid love a composition
change. They did the exact same thing against Team Heretics when we think back to kickoff last year.
This is what they do. This is quite literally what they do. Mine games and this is an
Insane way to start off our lower bracket final with only one ticket left to Santiago between our teams fanatic and liquid
Who's gonna start off strong? Let's find out was heading into the first map of the series with our castors to top
Well, it's time to punch that last ticket Tom
Both of these teams have had one hell of a journey here liquid bracing that lower bracket run of fanatic falling by around
In the previous final and it really is fair to say either of these teams could have it could be said
They've earned their spot on the international stage, but sadly only one of them will make it there.
Yeah, that is the sad thing about it. These are two teams that are renowned for at minimum making it to international events.
I think maybe with the changes to Liquid, how much they like switched up their roster, there might have been a few more questions there,
but either way with how they've been playing, expectations are high.
A lot of it is because of these two guys on your screen right now.
A man in Nats who started off as at a point the world's best player, running it down on Viper being everybody that came into his path.
And a man opposite who many do or at least should put as the best IGR in the world.
One of them is not making it to Santiago and it all kicks off here.
Launching 4 years up and away they go, fnatic, playing quite passive down the bottom of mid.
They've already been smoked off but the pressure's coming in elsewhere as Liquid get aggressive on A main.
The dog the boaster was trying to break all the rules as Wayne finds one on top of his wall and orb as well on the way out.
Good early economy for them.
Fanatic try to recover this man disadvantage. It's doubled up from liquid in this corner.
So much damage done in a previous team by Camel, but this time we see the numbers equalize.
Yeah, after what was a bit of a worrying start caught by a surprise,
Fanatic had been able to recover. The space taken was massive and well a man that we're definitely gonna have to keep an eye on this map.
It seems like his home turf of Corode Alpia has given them the advantage.
Nat will turn it back though, level things up for the moment, and leave him taking advantage with Wayne and leaves Vecash.
He broke 100 kills yesterday in the best of five. Here, he just needs two.
That plant certainly not ideal for him.
Gotta get a move on now with the smoke down. Suspects of player having a great read from the cash. Goes in to stop this!
The ball gets too far out of the game!
Wayne!
It's not a bad idea sticking it in that moment.
Not many players would dive in like that, but the can is built different.
That's going to be a Red Bull clutch to kick us off.
Of course, it had to be a fanatic clutch to start out the game.
It's something we expect quite a lot of.
I'm sure Wayne would have been...
He's already made a name for himself just in the last game alone.
It was a space of a few rounds where he put up two of the greatest coaches we've ever seen.
Let's go!
I think we have to sort of caveat this map a little bit.
This is one that, I'll be honest, I expected Liquid to ban.
I didn't think they'd even try and play this because of how good Fnatic have looked
and because of how poor they've looked on the other side.
But they have completely changed their composition.
They've swapped the roles, they've swapped who's playing what, they've put Mini-Boo on an agent that we've seen in pretty much tear apart teams.
If they were ever going to play this match, this is the way I'd like them to play it this round though.
I can't see them unless they get exits. I can't really see them doing any damage at all.
No wall. Sitting there has to be broken first and actually going to go through it together looking for the fighters to reach.
It's very hard to find the value here especially when the pack is split like that and
okay the stun might make it uncomfortable for a player or two so damage comes in but three men survive.
Yeah, a little bit more constant, maybe they would have liked me, ultimately, with pistols available, really not the end of the world.
I suppose it's a good time to ask, and Tom, heading into this fire, and like, obviously, you can touch on this map, but how the view overall has gone down.
Wait, I know we spoke about it before the game, you said, you could sort of see there's been like a three-way fanatic, are you sticking with that now?
Yeah, I think, especially the first few maps, I'm a little bit worried, because you got Corode, I think, I heavily put to fanatic.
I think Bind, I lean to Liquid, but it's definitely not definitive. Abyss, I'd say, is fairly heavy.
If it goes further, I think that's where it starts to get more interesting.
I think Breeze is great for Liquid and Split.
Maybe a little more up in the air, like the Aggression again though.
Wayne, put onto this stage, obviously normally, he's been sticking to those smokes, but...
Allows him to be that little bit more aggressive. Use some of that individual skill that has been spoken about.
I'm with Fnatic. Put it quite a bit into this round, obviously it's still a bonus. See how much damage they can do.
Oh, Wayne is on a tear. I mean you started this map by talking about him and for good reason yesterday those two clutches.
He normally does it when everyone else is dead though. It's a bit unfair if he just does it at the beginning of rounds.
And it's going to already clearly be an annoyance in terms of that wall early on. We've seen it towards A main but we know that there's plenty more angles.
This could come into play. Nice attempt with the flash thrown out, but the number is already too far behind.
Wait, will he be the one to find a fourth? Rez online coming into round four and one on the board for Liquid.
Yeah, already just seeing that with this guy, I guess being a little bit let off the leash.
Like when you're playing the Sage you can be more proactive. You can have those aggressive fights and then put slows down to make it awkward for people to swing you.
I'm just giving him the backup to use some of that individual skill which they the guy can get three kills one on five HP
Imagine what he can do on full HP a great round for liquid to kick off
But as said this is where for manic had their buy they have an ultimate available for those sodas Wayne
We'll see if they can now start to field into this attack side a little more
I think the main thing is though if it's well never mind the theory crafting liquid are going aggressive right off rip
3, 4, walking down mid. No presence on A that they fought for with that wall a couple of times now.
Conditioning their opponents with a catch somehow ends up with 2.
Purple doing his best to pull this back, but they're stuck up close.
And Team Liquid needs to make something of this aggression and they have Sanding Boaster into a clutch.
The first already found, but the spike down in the open across the line, but while the smokes come in, Boaster takes his time.
But Nats takes the round! Team Liquid 2-2, but it's a bit of a nail-biter.
Well, it seems to be very much within the Liquid wheelhouse.
We saw this versus Heretics, I think we saw this versus Vitality as well.
Their goal is not to necessarily beat you with their game plan.
Their game plan is to stop your game plan.
It's getting in your face, it's getting scrappy, it's fighting you
before you can get anywhere near what you want it to achieve.
And this round is all about that, they never stop pushing.
fighting for the spawn towards the end of the round.
And on that, sure, it came down to a clutch,
but they now get a huge economy advantage.
They get to come in with an outlaw for this next round,
and, well, a few pistols and a Guardian.
It's definitely a low buy.
Nice, I took already, Kaiak though.
Not able to punish that kill up close.
Quick reactions of Camo got him out of dodge in time.
The numbers here should be able to avoid
that Utah coming through Camo.
I said, oh, steps back from the stun,
He might not even be needed coming through that smoke is clearly a dead sentence in the breaks pumped now for fanatic
The Guardian they have in play the only real strength of this round and
You still have that steel garden to fall back on I mean if they could find a pig
Maybe that gets them into the site, but the numbers thinning out
They need a way back in that crushes is done well to find one I
I still see Alfie are alive and I still believe that maybe there's some hope.
He's been having unbelievable rounds on this map.
Camo, you need to be careful with peeks like that when he's got a Guardian in hand.
He's going to get tagged up by the Tiger, but I don't know if there's really a wall, but they push this.
And honestly, I don't mind that from Wayne.
He's been getting so many kills that the res will likely come back online in a few rounds anyway.
Instead, they're going to put the pressure on.
Eventually they'll seal the deal. It took a res, they baited an alt, but ultimately it is still liquid to extend and get the lead.
Well I think coming in with the low by, rushing into that site where they're denied their initial aggression, they have the stun put down to try to catch Camel, but he gets out.
All things considered, that's a pretty big win, just getting the res out. I think Fnatic will have a smile on their face coming out of that round, but coming into this one, full royalties for them, rifles and credits put on the line.
This should be where they put it on the board.
Don't let Liquid run away with things for too long, as the lead was just claimed.
Yeah, I think also Liquid in this map can take those risks,
because they must almost expect to lose it.
You see it again.
Just an immediate fight forward.
Constant pressure being put on.
Hunter's Fury, you're not going to be used by Puppets.
Like, head of the camo is as well!
You're expected to flee, fall back, run for the hills when Hunter's Fury comes through,
but instead they fight forward again, the W key constantly being pressed and Wayne just
doesn't stop it going for more and more. Only one standing in crashes as four players
remain on the other side. The first comes easy, maybe not, doesn't even get that one.
Wayne on 2 HP.
Four to two for Team Liquid on the map that we had questions about how they'd perform
if they could match up the fanatic. Well, in the first six rounds, or as the sixth
stands, a timeout coming from Fnatic. They want the pistol to follow up. Nothing really
since then. And Team Liquid's staple early aggression. He's dead right in their face.
That's how they're playing. Heads up Valorant. And it's different positions every time as
you try to slow them with the smoke. Or even as they put smokes down, denying you map control,
they're invading those smokes on Team Liquid's side on the defense, flashing out with the
sky and making this such a difficult attack side to play because, as you said in one of
you just cannot play your game here.
You are not forced to adapt to what Team Liquid are doing,
which already gives them a leg up.
Oh, yeah. Now, take a look at how this match has sort of gone.
It has always been a sort of favourable side
for Fnatic in those games.
They have been the squad that have been able to sort of take those victories over the line
in majority of circumstances.
And I do think that realistically,
that's where a lot of people will be thinking that this is going today,
but I'm liking what I'm saying from Liquid already.
Bear in mind that when you go back to the defensive side, they have versus vitality, the map that they lost, it was this one, 13-Tay and 13-5.
They only managed two defensive rounds, so they really struggled on this defensive side. They've got double that already, and they've not played it as a defense.
They played it as an attack.
Yeah, I mean, that is the key. The best defense, a good offense and liquid, putting that to practice on the server.
Five seconds left, the timeout from Fnatic.
What's the fixed beam and this won't be the round we see it most likely again. It's gonna be that low bite
They did well last time
But well no pressure on the shoulders a team like with the start 5v3
Also, no need to continue this aggression, but they are feeling it and that could be their downfall
Pride does come before the fall and a big mistake there to continue pushing the issue
Ah, you get into the mindset of W gaming and sometimes it's hard to let go.
They've given guns over, Fnatic were happy to play much further back, but Nats taking out the cash
and leaving Boaster in the clutch again and is he going to go all the way around to maybe even try and
link up with his teammate? No, it was a bait. It was a bait to try and get Boaster to look the other way,
try and get him to lock in on a different position and in the meantime Nats is right back around this angle once again.
again. Still means there's a chance for Bozer to isolate the fights though.
That's the main concern. They're just waiting for that plan to come through, whether it will be
orbital strike, I mean it will be a big commitment to throw in, but the Molly on the other hand,
that's going to block them all from the rotate, wrap around from Nats, contain Nats, smoke and
to take Bozer down. An unusual strategy, I don't know if he planned for that with the gap in the
Molly or if that was an adjustment, but either way, very well handled. Another round for Liquid,
Yeah, they do overheat. I can almost understand it. They just call the pause. You crush them like that right away
But when you're up against that low by continuing the aggression
It's usually a bridge too far. That's crazy. I genuinely think if we ever introduce
Aging bands and you're playing up against miniboo you ban Neil. You just do it every time
He's been doing things all the way through this stage that
I saw a little bit
Hey, hey, where are you?
Where are you, push?
I feel like he's going to say something much meater than that.
He's like, no, no, remember who you are.
You're the nice guy.
Tony map for it.
Tony map for it.
Saved that for the third.
A five to two, a five round streak from Team Liquid here.
This is the map you almost give to Fanatic
and Liquid are giving them nothing.
Almost got him through the wall there.
Alpha's wondering if he's seen.
And it's still aggression coming through this time.
It will be punished! The slow goes in, the orbital strikes, but there's a gap, and these players are safe, able to just about get out.
A nice idea by Liquid, this time it doesn't land.
Yeah, I think Alpha's probably one of like five players that would have been quick enough to hit that reaction shot on a guy flying through the air.
Thankfully, Fnatic do have Alpha here.
Gives them the advantage, wall placed.
Almost as a bit of a bait.
Come on.
He's looking to get rid of the aggression on the other side.
He's punished the push and pull of Fnatic starting to come into effect.
And you look how open that B site currently is.
However, that's getting in early enough.
He's going to be able to smoke it and slow them down.
This is so good for Malph. The second his wall got tripped, he walks back.
He feels that space should now be that bit more open.
And he could be right if noise was made on B.
And the knife goes through. Here's the ult as well.
That's such a good fake.
I saw it in the can as Alpha called for this play.
But does he expect there to be another player?
They might think Miniboo, the one who was on A earlier,
is the last man standing on this side of the map.
The steps heard, and that's Wayne's chance to strike
with a kill on the other side of the map.
This is far from over to the wall,
along with the swallowing, it's gonna cost them so much time.
Fnatic make it in, the swall buys them space,
but they need to stand their ground on this swing
and just about in the nick of time,
That plant comes in a recovery and what could have been a disaster for Fnatic and only Nats stands in the way of their victory now.
It doesn't have any utility to play with whereas you can see the stars falling from the sky,
things starting to align for Fnatic as Nats is basically hoping for a mistake and he's gonna get flanked on instead.
The guy with the rock around him, Fnatic will gain that round of break in the streak of Liquid.
I'm one that still had moments where I not feared especially with Wayne on that angle.
I worried he was gonna just take this whole thing down.
I can really good work by Alpha to start out taking that pick and then the read
towards that A site. The space take and even though he got punished for it they
made good use of that. Let's go my bro.
The call to go back to the A site what wins in that round. The first since the
follow up to the pistol it's been a big streak from liquid because of that
fanatic won't be facing an eco anytime soon ops still in play it's for miniboo
on mid
fanatic might be giving them an opportunity the smoke's not gonna stay
around forever it is worth mentioning as well though that right here while this
might seem a little bit worrying for fanatic their defensive side of this
map has been sublime eight rounds versus mates a six zero versus liquid last time
and ten bursts for...
and with Miniboo now down...
even with a...
utility straight in!
It's all the odds towards Wayne,
but he has just walled himself into a corner.
You can't get me, if I can't get you either.
Yeah, given time to recover,
now the smoke down as well makes it so hard
to not use this off,
but with Steve's moments ago away.
He's made it just about around that corner.
Half his HP gone, little heal,
but unfortunately,
Matt's going back to fight for the space
deny that plan to at least make it costly on the health bars. He's lost his life and
immediately the call from Liquid is to go for the save.
I think that was just almost perfect from Kayak and Alfea. Get the opener, claim all
of the space. Even though Wayne is still safe in the corner, he can't do anything while
they encroach on the rest of the site knowing that they've already cleared out Miniboo and
then Alfea's utility. Take away any of their weaponry and they make it that if they want
to flee, which they do because they don't have a weapon.
They're going to be called by your thorns.
They're going to take damage and then
have an operator waiting for anybody going back in.
Wonderful stuff from Frenatic.
Good adaptation from what we saw in some of the earlier rounds.
And I said, if they end this off 6-6,
I'm still confident that this is them.
Certainly no reason to doubt it.
But the back of my mind, you think
about what Liquid have shown us so far.
They've had some good ideas when it comes to early set plays.
This would be initially the sage walls and so on.
We saw that dive through from Kimmerlater attempt
to hinders some players to get them hit by the orbital strike.
No doubt there's plenty more up their sleeve.
And if they can just keep eking out
a couple of defensive rounds from this point forward,
that was pretty happy.
Five already on the board.
How far can they push it?
It's the question that remains to be answered.
And with their credits dwindling,
this round may dictate the answer to that.
Yeah, it's very cool that they have this many set
plays on a comp that they literally
didn't play the last time they played this map, which was yesterday. So it's clear that
Liquid have been working on multiple different comps, either that or they stayed up all night,
which would be a terrible idea and I don't think they did that.
Would be dedication. I'll give them that, but no. I think this is clearly something they've
had in that back pocket. Maybe a slightly riskier comp if the last one didn't work out, which
much it didn't. But again, Fanatic doing what Fanatic does best, these slow rounds, figuring
out the map, looking for openers, giving Kayak opportunities to try and find a pick with
the operator. Wayne on the other side though is just like, well you can put a wall down,
so can I. And I'm just gonna, again, delay. And that's what this stage is almost perfect
for. Let him fight forward, let him use those slows if anybody tries to make a pacey here.
And then let me make it more awkward for you. You have to break this wall otherwise walking
through this gap. It makes it very easy for me.
Yeah, and the wall at one minute. I mean, this is just going to give you so much information.
They've broken it, so there were players outside.
Team Liquid happy to sit down on that control, push up towards B main as well, take that deep
information, and from there, Fnatic almost forced to run into a stack.
Now, they've only seen one with that suppress.
And now, no one's in the corner. You start to think that it could just be that solo defender.
Yeah, the sage should be somewhere now taken down.
Let's see one guy left on site. Let's go in but there's actually a backup as a second player here flash pop
Purple stills down
Dang, Dominates the tools and the round is for Team Liquid as a result
That third man flying under the radar has caused it to come crashing down for Fanatic
It's just
There was milliseconds in that
Zidjul milliseconds, him trying to jump out of the way to flash his opponents and then landing both shots in that split second
Because even though it was so late, look, ten seconds on the clock here, eight as he goes for the kills
If he dies there, they still get the point, they still win the point
Like that is how much of a margin one can't down to
For Papa
Look at my molly, wait, and as you can see, I've got no choice but to look at your molly, I almost killed him
But even if he just cost him an extra one second Molly lands still can't get the plan
I it's a really nice play from team liquid and I think they responded to that info perfectly again that late wall from Wayne
buying so much information and you have to really command liquid for what they've brought to bear here today as
You said that quick turn around on the comp, but this looks like something that's been rehearsed for a long time
Oh, it's a fight. But the second man there again, it's kind of a bait.
It is literally bait. It's you're going to fight. I assume there should have been some sort of retreat plan, but that plan wasn't taken.
And then you've left Mini, but the problem is he now feels like he needs to get a kill.
Otherwise, it's just untreated and you fall him back.
And, well, even if there was a trap in play, if Fnatic avoid it now, they really don't care.
Well, this time they wait outside that wall.
Again, last time he broke it, they rotated in pretty quick, they waited.
So now, they let the clock run a little bit, then burst on in, but the quick rotation and
mini-boost still sees that third player here, and now a danger in this corner, the judge!
Oh, it's going to be terrifying!
The jump shot!
Oh, it strips the gash, and more than half is left.
They're still standing with three.
Purple looks to change things as they break through this smoke with the flash.
It will be the same in response for the cast.
Oh, that's it!
And nobody dodged his jumps and return.
Feeding up a healthy course of lead.
And Alphys there with the dessert.
Magnetic, run away from tying this up in the half.
And I didn't think I'd be setting that coming into this map, Tom.
But with how things started, it's quite the recovery.
I mean, almost feel like that boy should be playing Phoenix.
Like, the way that he's playing this is like,
I'm going to flash for myself round a corner and then jump in.
Like it is just Phoenix gameplay, but a sky in disguise and he's watched far too much jack-o'-mots
I mean, I don't know if he's singing maroon five down there, but I wouldn't be surprised
I didn't walk out this time that catch definitely ready to play that anti flash
Six to five
This is looking pretty damning at five to but that's a fanatic comfortable on that defense
This is so aggressive from the defensive side and again, it's working out!
And he was running through!
It's O.T.L.A's smoke and it's worked out wonderfully!
Just a complete wipe down off that neon and they'll take the lead of the half.
You know, it is a bit derivative to say there was no strategy to that defensive side, right?
They had set plays, they had plans, but it feels like they threw the playbook out the window
in favor of Blue Force in so many of these rounds.
Liquid looking strong on map one-half one.
More to come after the break.
Your body knows a sense of victory.
Seize when mind movement and gear ignite is one.
Now step into your zone designed to win.
to that defensive side around attacking.
I'm now very curious to see if they're gonna sit
in spawn on the attack or I was gonna say that same energy.
I do think Fnatic will expect to those aggressive plays
a little bit more now than the defensive side.
I would probably have better setups for it as well
on their defensive side.
Possibly.
So I think this is where it definitely gets a bit tougher
for Liquid.
Obviously again, last time they played this map,
they got zero rounds on this attack versus Fnatic.
So even though that was a good first half,
there still needs to be more in the tank.
But as said, this comp has been far more impressive,
more exciting than anything else we've seen
from them on this map.
So if there was ever a time to believe
that they could steal Corota way,
the one that's, I feel like meant to be
the short file in for Fnatic, this might be the comp to do it.
Well, two rounds between them,
the pistol could put Fnatic on equal footing
or sand liquid flying into the lead early on
in this past a five.
And on the map, I think most people expected Fnatic
to have a fairly easy time, but it's been anything.
but rotates from liquid.
And again, they've shown presence in main.
Now two players coming through this connector.
I mean, this is clearly a split of the A site.
That's clearly where they want this fight to go,
at least from the perspective of Fanatic.
But as we can see, there's something else cooking here
from liquid.
And although Boster's getting suspicious,
he will be the only one on that side of the map
when five players come bursting through the gates.
I don't expect him to do much other than grab the info.
I'll see if he can get one.
It would be nice.
But yeah, he's sitting all the way back, hoping to try and maybe just hold on to some of the space.
That'll be a bigger issue. They lose full control of everything. It's going to be tough.
Beckett has already just gone through.
They managed to get himself one for free. That's Natsal. He's the exact guy you'd want in a post-bond.
And in the meantime, Liquid have got aggressive. They've taken full control of the spawn.
And he's a tweenbacking boaster. Not quite prepared for Miniboot to be that aggressive in the last two.
Only just getting into position.
My shot's from Cratchy's, but one kill, two, still two more to go.
Mini-Boo up top will swing wide and the bandit closes this round.
Liquid, eight to five with a pistol already under the belt of Fanatic.
Again, you know, if this was the second pistol for Liquid,
you go with the kind of explains the score line,
but they've looked better when it comes to rifle rounds.
This is very worrying.
I have a moment.
I do feel like it's almost going to get to a point where you're the coaching staff, you're
blowing your youts in, you're watching MiniBoo playing Neon and just go put him on every
single map.
He just runs around and fries people while they're trying to just set up for things.
He's the most disruptive player I think I've ever seen play this game.
Well, let's just say Fnatic have got the read wrong here.
all outside B. Everyone on Liquid's outside A. So unless they do a fake and run all the
way back, which they're not doing, I think this is just going to be five players trying
to die to the spike.
Yeah, there's a pretty good chance, at least an orb found for crashes. Four away from the
Hunter's Fury now, but for Liquid, this is the chance to build up major economy. They've
already got the one pistol in the form of the bandit in play. So for Fanatic to actually
do damage to the two picks playing back in with these classics that's not going to be
very easy Alphas at least got the bandit they'll go first and he will go indeed straight out
of the round the ball shall skip anything out of this one that's just the calm of that
you completely ignores kayak diving over the top because he knows that okay this really
shouldn't be very costly lads this should have been a nice clean one this should have
been very easy you've just lost yourself three players. What just happened? That was a couple
of SMGs gone. Okay it's not the end of the world but one rifle goes with it and that
is as good as that ever could have gone when you gamble on the wrong side of the map. Yeah
yeah especially with the initial fights. Go on the other way. They did a remarkable job
I need to see what crash he's did here because he was tucked in the spawn. Look at this five
versus two. There should have been no damage from this point forward. Kayak gets a lot
done, but then, yeah. The thing about Crash is he can just do things that nobody else
can. Like yesterday, he was playing on the stage and I was watching him stream as well.
It was really weird. Yeah, right? I don't know how he did that. Super positioning. That's
a next step in quantum computing, I believe. I'll have to have a chat with him after. Figure
that one out, pick his brain, 9-5, Brown 15, sees Liquid, pick up the pace, straight in
towards this A-Sciper, they're falling flat as they go running through that choke point.
There's only three left, two losses, damage done to Wayne, it's almost taken him out of
the round.
One HP clutch, high healed.
Yeah, there's the heal at least.
He's also got some coming in from Sky, so back to reasonably decent health, but the
Man advantage doubled up on
To see
Taking the time almost
They do have to be a little bit careful, but that's is now going on the other side Wayne. He's a little bit healthy
Also has res I don't think he's getting out here alive
Three percent standing
Back onto the board for Fnatic.
I think we've just witnessed maybe a small piece of what
Liquid are going to be attempting.
That was so quick on their way into the site,
but Fnatic did very well to deal with it.
Yep, they win the opening fights.
I think there's no reason for Liquid to come into that,
but they're estimating their ability in those duels.
This time they didn't land.
They need to do lights up and just, yep,
misses probably six, seven shots in a row.
That's what happens.
But he did a lot of damage.
I think the potential is there when it comes to the buy rounds
to the buy rounds that Liquid are about to pull out.
Arise there as well, so even if they stumble early,
they can pull players back in.
They have to contend with crashes on this big old gun.
You know, if you can't beat him, join him.
He's doing a good job at least to start.
See if he can have that same impact over mid.
The Brawl did right back at Jax.
Oh, he's out!
He's got the way!
He's out of there!
That's madness.
And with Perpo and the Sage,
Perpo can get healed back up and then
they can heal us to the other player.
That's ridiculous.
I don't think that's something that they thought about too much when playing it, but that's got to be infuriating for Bocey.
Have a guy dash in, dash out, and then just run through the smoke and find a pick.
Kaiak's now going to try and beat them at their own game, but Pappo just waiting on the other side.
A double opener.
Still two players wait on that A-side, and Alphia's just been sitting on B waiting for someone to eventually peek him.
I don't think they're going to.
Surprise, he's not yawning.
There could be a chance to pull this back.
A hunted fury is still there, but Crashies has to secure his back and it's his pick.
Oh no! I could decide everything!
Well, decision made.
The guys did dodge that flash though. They won't expect him to be this far forward,
but the chance converts to one kill.
And Alphier probably just wants to save this weapon for the next.
Good thing he's got his wall behind him.
Relatively safe, but double digits for Team Liquid.
Fanatic trailing on six and a dominant round like this, how they get there.
get there this is a terrifying thought experiment really when you expand that to bind we're liquid
will be I think here without a doubt be more comfortable than this but I can't even visualize
what that would look like they look so at home here on corrode I don't know I think if you
watch the last two maps of binding where you can imagine it watch many people in the spawn
last map was insane I almost lost that right wait did they lose it where he found the spawn yeah
Yeah. Nonetheless, seeing that pace, I like the layers to it.
Like the liquid going super quick in, having that second layer of just a risk taken by Purple.
But then, as Fnatic tried to react, they're still just holding that space.
They're not allowing the many control.
Also, I wonder if a part of this is avoiding Alphear.
Ladies, he's had his setup both times on that beat.
So, I mentioned it the last couple of times that,
one, got back to the base game then on 16-14.
He was 31 and 21.
He basically was the reason they won. I think he was the only positive player on Fnatic.
Well, if he's gonna man the B side, I'd rather go fight the 4 on A.
I'd rather go the other way. That is something that Liquid have genuinely thought about.
I don't hate it.
You can see, Crap, she's not happy with that Odin's spray in the connective.
Yeah, I don't blame you or him.
Oh, chance there for Wayne.
This for Liquid, the push towards the A site is the same pace, the hinders even landed
boaster.
Well it does have some support though, nothing or too much pressure just yet but when the
guy is down it has to be boaster to pull him back into this as he falls.
The A site should be for Team Liquid but Crashies he reveals his hand, he's showing them that
he's here and the dog's spotting him.
He's ended the round, a rez, just to double down,
Liquid knowing how important it is
to crush Fanatic's economy and to find themselves
that 11th, the whole stretch of Pop Flash.
Oh!
He's made it out, and there's a double swing
coming out of 11 to six for Liquid,
whole stretch, well and truly mounted.
When do they move out for you today?
When do they put him there?
Because it is genuinely just bombard that elbow side,
He just constantly hits it with pace, and also it's sort of like if an A broke, don't fix it.
Like it's working for liquid. Keep running it down until they stop us. Keep doing it again and again and again.
And then these flashes, like I swear he's playing Phoenix. He's just pop flashing every time to go for these aggro picks.
The difficult part about this is that you can almost just all in on that A play now.
You've just called a timeout. The problem has been A. It certainly hasn't been B outside of the pistol.
So then you come to this conclusion of your team liquidive. Hey, they're taking a moment
What do you think their solution is gonna be it might not necessarily be to put alpha there?
But you have to imagine it's either some defensive or aggressive stance on that side of the map
But then it becomes the mind games
It's not even that if you're fanatic you're going well, we're taking a pause to deal with them on a so now
They'll go be and so then you maybe you change nothing
It just becomes like your mind game. I want to see liquid go away again
I think that's the because realistically if it goes wrong you go
Yeah, they counted a try one of our other strats if they
Don't stack it up and you still win. It's hilarious
Well, we now get to see where the mind games have landed
Seems like they've not changed much at all
They have left Alpheia over on that visa.
The problem is, and this is the one fact that we didn't consider still,
is that this is an eco round.
Strategy doesn't matter that much.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You gotta still have ideas when you come into them,
but the fact that Liquid likely to hit that 12...
Whatever was discussed better be an airtight strategy.
They've just thrown the dog into B early,
and then not actually sent anyone there.
It's just...
Well, I think again, they're playing passive early,
to see, as you said, what their opponents are doing. Are they going aggro? Are they taking
space? Are they trying to trap us somewhere? But the fact is, Fnatic actually aren't doing too much
different. What I would almost like to see Liquid do here is break that wall, is get some of that
information out of Alpha's hands if you want to drag the rotate, and you can see they're clearly
expecting some sort of a reaction earlier on mid, containing that space with Wayne's wall, but then
around the A site. Nobody in main this time. A completely different round from Liquid. They were that
reason, but they still end up here. Coming through Connector and said, assuming that the
trap has been put in towards A main, but instead Fanatica played back. That still didn't stop
Kayak from going down to the Spam, but here's the bookie. A chance, an opportunity perhaps,
but it's not helped, but MidiBoo just dove past the cash, took Foster from behind, and now this
The last man standing and well his name's already in the history books.
This one would underline it 12 to 6 for Team Liquid.
6 chances to close out a map that, hell, some fanatic fans might not have tuned in.
They would have just assumed, oh watch map 2, we're going to win the first with ease.
Well, the shoe's on the other foot here.
Yeah, and then a lot of the time you're going to go into those first feet toes and go for
your strengths.
I do think there's some playing games played in the veto as well,
like maybe you feel a bit more comfortable and like number three or something,
because that could be the one that ends up being the beginning of the comeback,
or the one that seals it, which of course would be Abyss,
which again is a very, very good map.
But this was meant to be probably the weakest map in the liquid play,
versus one of the strongest in the fanatic play,
and it is looking like the opposite right now, liquid in form,
and their opponents yet to really show up to the party,
Especially in this second half, most of all kickoff with the pressure put on Hunter's fury thrown out to delay them.
That B hit, they were finally going to go B.
But they might have been denied. I don't know, they're pushing.
Now they've committed so much already, and Liquid have won when they forced the issue.
My God!
Perpo used himself as a Sky Flash.
God camo the kill.
What a way now from Convergence path by the way.
The spike is holding deep into spawn, which I'm not a fan of that, Burpo, go back the
other way, you're 45 HP, you madman.
But if you give Camo the plant here, or if he goes and gets a pick, I suppose, the round
could be yours, and then Nance just picks up an ult, finds a kill in mid, and you've
already got the advantage.
Well, they've avoided.
And the heal on Camo.
The one time, the setup was on the other side, they avoided Alphie again, and now the Nance
That's Operator is taking over Alpha and he's been the last to live in every single round
Never having a chance to have impact
They've avoided it, they've dodged it
They've had their Alpha radar available the entire time
Does he have anything to keep them in their map choice?
To stop them going 0-1 in this series?
There's a second!
No! No!
Maybe next is his moment!
No! It is not!
Nats will stop him accessing the site
And Liquid take their opponent's choice
choice to stop things off 1-0. Well, this has completely turned the tide of how we expected
this series to go. Liquid answering early on with a dominant display. Now, well, the world is
there. Oyster, time to go down to the stage where we've got ourselves a little halftime check-in
with Purple. Congratulations, Purple, for this first map. We saw a very aggressive come from you guys
on the on-corridor and you cooked with that sky. So I was wondering, you know, is the secret to
to beating Fnatic just running at them and throwing flashes
and is that your plan for map 2 as well?
Run it down and end up winning.
Congratulations and good luck for map 2.
Thank you so much.
Let's see if Fnatic can bounce back on map 2 after a short break.
The only thing I want, I want from us for this game.
I was watching the game yesterday
and every time they struggle,
I see the poster face, not the fully.
I want to see today, even worse.
I want to see how Winnipeg ran them down,
and this guy thinks why he plays Valorant.
I want to see his face, so nothing,
he thinks that I don't even know why I started that.
Let him, I think, forget about five years he played the game,
so he will remember that day, okay?
We man we man well what what?
Have a break have a kicker we man world what wants in a well won't break
but most
Red Bull gives you wings.
Let your heart jump into me now
So fuck it, we don't know now
Don't make that way
In tonight
Just go showin' how I'm no Peter
I'll see you, I'll see you
Now don't die, oh, it's deep
Don't see how I'm not safe
She'll burn us, she'll please don't go down
I'll stay, I'll tell them why
Just as he can love his kids
I'm not sure if they're missing
She'll like the party
Another change in your comp in this war bracket, how do you decide when it's the right time
to take this risk and whether it will pay off?
I mean, you take these risks when you know they have a better crew than us, so you have
to cook something that we thought it would be more towards our strengths, I think it worked out.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. When it does, we are a genius. When it doesn't, we are dumb.
So today, I think we are a genius.
Alright, some wise words from Lohan there. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe not.
60% of the time, right? It works every time.
It works this time and this is when it matters because then there's no bracket.
But most importantly, before we even break down this map, this composition, how everything went,
that Natspeesh felt personal.
Is Nats the ultimate villain?
Because we've been talking about his features and whatnot, and we've been painting this picture of him being such a nice guy, such a cool guy to follow.
Composed, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Always on the light, and now he's going towards the dark side.
I mean, I didn't find a weakness.
We were talking about some of the cast yesterday.
You could see the energy immediately turn.
Well, I dropped off a cliff yesterday for Fnatic.
Again, as soon as they're on their feet,
making noise, giving it across the stage.
So Nats is obviously targeting the fact
that they were looking at a tilt yesterday.
Absolutely, and you can, we heard it in the speech from Nats.
I mean, even low hunting in the coach confession,
like, oh yeah, you know, they're better than us on Corote.
So we'll just throw something at them.
We're just like, you're just keeping up with the ball,
they're making 100.
I don't know how easy it is.
Like, I don't like writing off a little bit purple
being like, yeah, we just ran it down.
Maybe, maybe going to lose Coro, why not try something.
But there was actually a lot of new ones to this comp that I actually really
appreciated in terms of the heal, the dog, the flash it enables them to play
a way that really addresses what's been fanatic strength or kind of trademark.
By the way, starting with the wall over the top here.
Again, the indicator of proximity on the defense, which was obviously
their ethos going into this.
Yeah. And you might think, well, if that's why you're not playing
the Viper here on this map, you have to do something around mid
and how you're going to work around that.
And most of the things the team, they can work doing
was to run it down.
As we're saying, the flushes just put a deep smoke
and just get into Fnatic's head.
And Mike, this was something that sometimes worked,
sometimes it didn't work.
We saw one where like, was it Cabo that just goes in
and tries to hinder and then not,
I don't think they hinder landed,
but Nats uses the over to strike
and it would have looked completely insane.
But this is, there's a couple of really nice set pieces
in there to highlight actually
what Fnatic really struggled with yesterday,
which was coming up with responses, right?
Being thrown off their game plan, initially,
this default, not really achieving anything,
not getting any progress towards the site.
And the worst thing is, late round,
walking into a site.
They were able to put the wall up, sit behind it,
last 30 seconds or so, the last thing you want to deal with
is a sage wall, then two slow warbs,
and a molly, and then people flashing out smokes.
It's just, it's basically the kryptonite,
the fanatic plane this way.
You'd be like, imagine how much more tilted you're going to be
that that's how you're going up against your opponent.
And then you hear the post check in after the map and he goes, Oh, yeah, we were just running it down.
Like you're just piling on them and kicking them while they're down.
But also we asked the coaches Loki the exact same question in regards to the mood
that fanatic after yesterday's best of five.
So let's see what he had to say.
Alongstera yesterday that you prepped for the night before.
How was this long stretch been for the team and has it impacted the mood?
Yeah, I mean, losing at best of five.
that way sucks obviously and it definitely impacted the mood but we definitely we focused on
putting and shifting their mentality quickly and trying at least you know to to bring good energy
for today I think we've done a good job um they came out of the the gate swinging and obviously
catch us off guard a little bit with that but I don't think it's that concerning I'm not really
that worried nothing the boys will be as well all right good words coming through yes they were
you're not agreeing, because I saw that look on your face.
We were just talking about this as well.
It was like the little snippet we saw of Melanne yesterday,
they were like, are we panicking?
Like the fact that you're even asking for it now, I'm panicking.
I'm panicking for them.
I think that one of the, like the worrying scenarios here
and the worrying things is the fact that we saw Kayak
in one of the rounds, just going with the operator
and the attack, finding a kill, and then trying to go
in that second layer, then finding Wayne's wall.
in the process and I think that he's not been having the best couple of last matches. He was so good last year and we were
seeing in his praises time and time again and especially for bind now
We are going to need that double duelist to be better the team liquid stuff. Yeah bind every time we talk about fanatic
What really jumps to mind is the rays as well
So from their side of things hoping to see them bounce back on this one. However, it is liquid
It's magic, so if anything, considering what they threw at them on Corode, I would not
be surprised if it was something new again.
No, no way.
No, well, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of maybe the ace of the sleeve
comps that maybe they've scrimmed a few times with here to come to this.
They get the success from Corode on a map where they're expecting to lose.
Keep going.
Yes, but you know that you're going to, you can choose, they're going to choose it
on to you.
You can design a comp that is going to be very strong on the defense.
You get a little bit of rampage.
Some of those rounds go your way.
I'm not just agreeing, I'm just saying...
We're going to find like, Neon can't defend one side by himself with Neon, who can do that?
I'm just saying there's a chance.
I agree.
And honestly...
To him, I would say like, oh yeah, we're desperately trying to, you know, work on finding our identity.
And then you come to this, Pester 5 vs Fnatic.
With a Brince on stage!
With a Brince on stage you say, nah, actually, we're expecting to lose, so we're going to run it down.
They're just in like, this whole, like, liquid, I feel like, is approaching this is like, oh yeah,
It's just another walk in the park.
We've been here in this low-up bracket for this entire time.
Fanatic's not gonna lock us out either.
Fanatic never went an international through kickoff.
Why would this time be any different?
But I feel like from the Fanatic side of things, they're...
I'm just saying the details.
They're really locked in.
I'm just saying the details.
Okay, what do you want to see?
What do you want to see?
Well, the biggest thing for me, again,
is designing some compositions that allow for them
to be proactive and really take the part to fanatic.
Again, we saw it glimpses like,
let's get in their faces.
That's obviously the game plan today coming to bind as well. It's another issue where we can highlight issues with the defaulting of fanatic
So if there's just a slight change, maybe not compositionally
But the way they approach the defensive path could be really important for liquid
But now that fanatic has already been tested in terms of liquid just running into their face
We're not expecting them to adapt as well and to come into this bind with like all right. They keep going. They're so proactive
We're gonna counter that. I'll caveat that. How many times do we see any adjustments yesterday?
Yes, we're taking the fight leaving space. I put on the map fanatic was so slow to respond
There's another thing that I lose to what Nats is talking about
You could see Boaster was flustered coming up with answers in the mid-round
We saw a lot of player reaction yesterday where they were just that shrugging their shoulders throwing their hands up
Didn't know what was now this isn't due to within or losing that engagement. It was like guys. What the hell's going on
They've walked down long. They're behind me. They're on site. You start losing trust in people
Well, like, are we really doing this the way that it's supposed to be done?
Why is it not working against the sink, and to just walk on to us is one piece of utility
enough to disrupt an entire attack?
Do we need more utility?
Do we need a change in comp?
Do we need another brimstone?
I mean, that's no viper, so nothing too crazy.
I'm sorry, Mike.
Yeah.
I know you're really...
We had the right to dream.
I'm not disappointed until we get into a key round.
I also want to highlight the fact that we saw it especially towards the end of the map
that we just witnessed, but it wasn't something else.
Like if he's going to be probably washing out of smokes,
if he's going to be having that confidence on top of having
that double dive that was working so good together,
especially when we speak about the defense and pushing smokes,
I'd be scared if I was going to tell you.
I know Sky's a little lost in terms of the meta discussion
right now, but I think in terms of their approach to map one,
if they're just going to really tap into Camo being the second
duelist here, building around Minibu, who's obviously found
his first, found his confidence once more,
got a little bit of bravado about the way he's talking about
game play as well. I'm absolutely all for it. And that's watching again on the speeches. Don't
know which one it is this time around, whether it's personal. Oh, I know. EBS is better.
It's better. Don't you feel like, okay. Out in the dumpster, we can do this or whether it's
another one of the most official ones. Either way, for me, Liquid has come out of the gate
swinging and they look so incredibly confident. I want bananas to find their confidence back.
Yeah, confidence being key for me as well. We kept talking about yesterday how it was
is concerned since Boast and actually it was on-bind
being top fragged.
A couple of players weren't putting up numbers yesterday.
They absolutely need to respond here.
If they could really continue
with this aggressive approach to this series.
And I want to see them cheering for each other
just like they were celebrating even the small things.
Like I do not see too much concern
at least on the face of Alfa, he looks pretty relaxed.
But I want to see them getting a little bit of momentum.
Just get a couple of rounds on the board.
In fact, you know, dancing at them, just to speak.
Yes, yes.
Get some all of their feedback for now they're all sitting in their bays with chairs and ready to load into the server
Which means we're gonna be tossing it over to our casters. It's a tough
Not first map has to be a wake-up call for fanatic Tom liquid came in prepared
But the bounce back needed might have to happen on liquids map pig
We're going on to bind and a danger over the horizon
Potential to zero start that's where your mind goes, but we've seen fanatic bounce back from worse situations
There was a clock on this one.
Yeah, for sure. I think historically this has been a fantastic map for Fnatic as well.
So is it a death sentence heading here? No.
But if you look at the last two games, the liquid plate on it, you might be a little nervous there.
13-3 versus Vitality, 13-3 versus Eretik's.
Two opponents that I think most people would have had them as less favoured against,
and they smashed them with their aggressive style.
And they did it on the defense just yesterday, constantly pushing the bounds.
the bounds. As said, there was moments where Miniboo was in the opponent's spawn, killing
them. So they need to stop this guy early. They need to remove some of that confidence.
Otherwise, yeah, I think they're getting 3-0.
Let's see Pal in the crowd making faces while you were going through.
Is that a face? Do you want a face?
Yeah. Get that man to raise.
Well, Team Liquid 0-0 starts now. The barriers go up. They have already swapped spots with
the attackers. Miniboo loves going down deep into their spawn and he's found the first
on to Verkacz. You know what Mike? You wanted to see him on his feet. I don't
think he'll be standing up. I was gonna say he was doing that to Chronicle. Why
would he fear doing that to anyone else? Happy to run it down. Happy to put the
pressure on and to the attack side. We've always known that Fnatic like to
feel on the map. They like to go looking. They like to find information. But
you're gonna have to almost switch your style up a little bit just to stop those
early kills going the way of the defense. For now at least. Crashes are trying to
sell the idea that this is an A-hit, but the other players, I'm not looking like they're going that way.
This is quite a clear late play to B.
Miniboo's standing by with the Sheriff. Remember, they don't have to commit to these fights already having that advantage.
The fallback, as Purpose still has a flounce, they can play back into the retake, fight out of the smoke, take that frontside control.
And he was caught a bit in the open here, already down to 50, revealed as well, but this is what it's all about, waiting for that Flash,
but he's going down instead of a bit more awkward, and Crashies still had vision, took Perpo down, and puts Fnatic into LEED!
Oh my alpha! It's a messy fight! That ends up with 1 somehow, but it might not play a role, and in the end, it's a clean up for Fnatic.
That was some of the issues they had on the last map was just being caught isolated and they end up losing those fights and after it happens again early.
Look at where he is fighting people.
That is closer to your spawn than it is to the site.
But it's the way they have their opponents back.
And a little bit of luck, you know?
Yeah, it happens sometimes.
Nice! Come on then! Come on and push us!
Maybe he saw what Nats was talking about earlier, about putting pressure on to him specifically
and trying to show that, okay, you got the first map, that doesn't really mean too much.
They know they're going to push, of course they know they're going to push, so spamming
that smoke makes a lot of sense, Nats is still here, oh I'll forget, just quick it up, that
could have been deadly, instead, well Kayak, he's taking space on the other side of the
map but at this stage I feel like the remaining two are just gonna look to go
down to that spike. I almost thought he was gonna TP out play with the rest of
the squad and not take the risks but still got much to lose. Sticking around yeah even
giving that over to your opponent so I'm gonna be the end of the world and maybe
Alph will be a bit angry but rest of the crew can still take that body shot. This
is the start that we wanted to see for Fnatic after a devastating loss on the
previous map you need something to get you on the horse early and at least
fun in the pistol. I'm in a relatively clean second round as well.
They're even farming up quite a lot of orbs. You can see Alpha's now the one with the Marshal
hunting down towards this site. He's two away from a showstopper and in the next round
that could help out a bunch. TP taken, those players will be hunted down. Alpha has a chance.
He could end up with one and in fact both kills. A 3k here. That has given Alpha here.
He gets the gun.
His ult and indeed he got a rifle on the run out. So a huge round in the end for him and
Fnatic they come into the next round rifles and a showstopper. Yeah, that could have gone really badly like they drop the
Fandal on the floor
I think it's crashes that fell. Yeah, but the fact that I'll be it cleans up the mess gets his old and then picks up the rifle at
The end that's about as well as that ever could have gone from the scenario. They were in
This man as well
They're going back to the previous games on bind was it was just on an absolute tear flying across
He'll scream at a million miles an hour. I think they're gonna need him here today with
how his opponents have been playing. And one of the things Liquid did very well on the last
map, especially on the attack, was they avoided him completely. They just went away from the
final boss of BMEA. Went and did side quests, which included winning rounds. It'll be harder
to avoid him here, especially when it comes to that attack side. Tip of the skier so often,
and especially expected to be the case here.
That showstopper to bring them into the site
and it will be the, that's under threat.
Seen this before though, Purpo playing towards that elbow,
flashing out the delay of the snake bite,
but a little different when that's going to,
it fades that space, he's gotten so close,
but a beautiful seize, reveals him, gives the pick away,
and now the pressure truly on.
The showstopper still not burned from Fanatic.
They've got that as a safety net.
And they'll keep this one in the back pocket for a future round as the third seems to be coming easily into their favor team liquid.
They're going to concede. They're running for the hills and no surprise Tom that they barely did a lick of damage, let alone no picks.
Yeah, I think that's just good research. So you look at the last map and it's a surprise. There was nothing in that composition.
The fanatic could have done their research and read into and counted on the day.
They didn't know what they were up against until they saw it in that moment.
In this map, it's very different, right?
Nats has been doing these things for however many years.
I go back to 2021, he's still doing some of the stuff he's doing.
You could see that Fnatic were ready, okay?
They've put up this smoke, they've put this in position.
There is a chance he's in this gap, let's make sure we check it.
And that's always where Fnatic has done some of that, that's what it is.
If we know what you're gonna do, we can beat it.
3-0, it's early days, but it's already looking far better than the last map.
Yeah, and I think even from the pistol from seeing poster standing his feet get a little bit loud. It's so important to have
I thought it was the seas. Yeah, it was too far back to actually reveal
That bottle was a little faster than he had and who knows
All right
But now it's so important to see him bring that energy up on the team because you can imagine how how low you feel after a
13-6. You know this is your last chance as well. You'll be watching Santiago from home and the energy's looking better on
Fnatic, but in this round the opening pick goes to Liquid.
That has been the thing for Fnatic.
Okay, sure you had lock in where the first tournament of the year came with a trophy.
But in 2024 and 2025 they did watch from home until
coming back at stage one, that's nice from Kamala, the slow perfect giving them a
two-man advantage many do incredibly low in what Wayne's play is it could be
fairly one-dimensional within stat holding onto hooker. Question is is there
gonna be any sort of recovery a little bit risky but info found nonetheless.
45 on the clock when push comes to shove, a shame to lose that showstopper in the opening.
Dual that was so close, the right idea by Kayak, but wrong execution, a flash though,
a different story, he's got himself two, eventually.
Took down Camo.
Here he comes again, the menace on the server, sliding around and finding one, one round for Team Liquid.
Yeah, I did much more of what we expected to see from them as some of this aggression that has caught their opponents out quite a bit, the mutual firing squad and then the reaction coming out from camera.
That is the trouble with this composition is if you fall into, okay, we lost a couple of rounds and play a little bit more scared, you lose.
You don't have the ability to do that, so the fact that liquids still are fighting their opponents aggressively, still taking that space, not faring away.
Of course, with Fnatic, they've still got plenty of credits to play with in this one.
And that shows up still available. It wasn't needed in the round prior.
Maybe used in an execute here. The double up in Hookah.
Contact, and then a second layer.
Guns been spotted. Alpheus still wins the fight.
Lennon goes, Hinder landed, and it's a DP play from Natsyn.
Trying to find a value to offer the strike, but down.
But those players, Hinder can fall back just far enough.
The blast backs, I think, helped Alfa.
But he's left on 30, and with Kayak falling,
and that attempt to take space elsewhere.
They are already so far behind with Alfa being picked off.
This round looks like it's dead in the water.
Boaster and Crashies left to pick up those pieces. They're walking into the site that's not well
The first goes their way, but now
That's the end of it
3k for Nats, the second round for Team Liquid and they're climbing back already
Yeah, I thought with the way I forgot that opening pick that this round was gonna be a different beast
But it was just that reaction once again
The immediate aggression out from Canada slow to give them space and then Nats just popping his way through the TP
The cover still being held on the other side, and it's just layers to the setups that they have.
Well, I don't think that big old cheater gives you, I get cheater, I think last time when they played on Fracture, but no.
I think he's referencing that 1v1 he had versus Boaster, where Boaster picks him at the end.
That's the thing that goes into my mind when he's talking about Fracture.
Yeah.
Rollin' back to years, my goodness.
There's the showstopper finally put through, and Liquid's responses, as you may have expected
to go pushing, but Perpo made a big mistake.
The showstopper finds it's mark, Kayak with the disruption into the spawn, Nasto, Ice
in a furnace, he's cracked two, that might just keep Liquid in it, and here comes Miniboo.
space and locking these players in towards Lamp says he was watching the
cross but crashes somehow survived left into the 1v1.
Boster waits on the other side of that molly for the 4th round on the board for Fanatic.
The fact from 4th has been crazy. The IGL is clutching out either round and it's just the
sheer pace of this one like a showstopper in one way, an aggressive
showers push the other way, a spawn fight back in from the defenders and then
they're all coming down to 1v1 where Boaster has to take down Miniboo.
No this time we had to mute it.
4-2 and that is quite a damning round for Liquid, the economy on the brink, a
couple of rifles into play, one of them in the hands of Nats and while Camo was
hoping to find a victim is actually that's the plan one instead. Yeah, they ran away
from the dark of that shorty and ran right into the bite crashes. He's waiting, biting
his time as camo recovers a rifle, though this gets a little bit dangerous, especially
for him. The wrap back from fanatic. If this gets spotted, that could be the spike down,
The space is good. They've managed to slip two players back at this point
You know all the info is
Slipping through the fingers of team liquid. They think they've got a good grasp on this situation
But I mean the gate crash from kayak might be the only thing that hints at this play going back in the other direction
If it's even taken it I think I'm close enough to hear it
Just I look like that's for a second might go back instead. They've just left it on too many but bear in mind
He has nothing. I think he used his ult maybe at the beginning of the round
But that's that's it. He's just sat with a classic the only thing he'll bring his team is information, but
How are they even gonna get there in time? They can't take the TP that's being watched on the other side
And his goal is just to slow them just use the stuns as much as possible
But even those have dissipated and now they're being flanked once again fanatic leaving things desperately low
There's the Viper spit. They're just trying to delay for camo
They're trying to give him space if he could drop the spike this round is basically over
He's gonna try and make that move.
Already getting it on the flag.
Despite just about being bronzed,
but I don't even think he matters anymore.
That catch has to clutch,
whereas he's the whole squad.
It is the classic to take him down.
Liquid surrounded them.
And at many points, it looked like for that,
we're gonna find the space.
But eventually they got caught.
And we know this is in the wheelhouse,
whether it was Mini,
whether it was Camel getting that deep aggression,
whether it's Nas wrapping up behind you,
this is not a map that you could give
map that you can give with that much space.
I like the idea of playing it slow,
but that little bit of extra delay, the read from Liquid.
I'm also surprised that Liquid had used it like 40 seconds.
They turned the State Fight towards B long.
They were convinced this was a B play,
with three players still there, utility being expanded
to buy more time, and they still end up on A in time.
And it's because of that decision from Camo
to say it's been a little bit too long without any utility.
I'm going.
At many groups, done.
him throwing that in towards mid-A, bought enough time for Nats to get their own Viper's
bit. It seems like the response is going to be a pacey a take, weaponry weak, but Alphia
still has a rifle in hand needed to win the fight, but actually Kaia gets it and now could
pick up that rifle for his own. They do have themselves a Viper's bit if they can find
space to use it, but look at where the defenders are already.
Seekers come onto the cash as well, they know that there's a player far outside the site,
but soon they may just flee completely, that wall can go up and they can take the TP, already
They've seen so many players here from Team Liquid.
Fnatic, they hold the ground.
They stand the line and fall together
and stand four to four now.
Team Liquid have caught up.
Yeah, getting more and more success.
You try and go pacey versus them.
It seems like they're ready.
I don't mind the idea from Fnatic.
Like, your opponents have been pushing B-Short
in quite a lot of rounds.
I've been a three-man push there.
and it didn't seem to make a difference.
It got a little bit further than maybe what they would have done,
but for Nidhi Buu, this has just been a farming round.
Nice!
Got over halfway back to where it's already.
My mother, the coach is giggling along.
Yeah, this is the moment for Fnatic to also have to slow things down again
from a 3-0 start.
They found themselves level,
and I do think they're really feeling that pressure from their opposition.
This is the other thing.
When you come into this map and off rip,
the energy's getting high, and you're
trying to lift spirits, and you also get a 3-0 start.
Well, that seems like everything's lined up for you,
and then it starts to taper off.
And that's even harder to deal with,
is that return to the low energy, return to the low.
And it's hard to get out of that without connecting
some rounds on the back.
The 4-4, the wind truly at liquid's back and fanatic.
Although it is tied up with the last map fresh in our memory, the vibe here, it feels like it's slipping round by round with four out of the last five rounds going to Team Liquid.
Now's the time for Fnatic to come up with answers.
Yeah, it's a good time to do it as well. If I piss pit on line, all but a strike available.
Nightfall there as well, but their opponents are going. Again, it's just an immediate push up mid. They might have been caught by a prowler, but it's going to flash straight through the smoke.
Again, they're wrapping around the spawn, but there has to be a reaction from Fnatic.
They're immediately gonna start putting that pressure, well, they were putting that pressure on towards the B site,
but they are taking their time, and that time might be the end of them.
It just depends how quickly we see the move from their opponents.
And while Nat is gonna be here and put the snakebite on to slow them that little further.
This is being what they do every single time.
That snakebite's enough to slow them, and by time is all they need to do.
The flank is getting so close to coming to completion, and now there it is, off the orbital
strike, an ult cancelled out for a piece of utility, and although Kayak finds two, now
the flank strikes, the spike is stuck in this corner!
They might have the sight, but they need to get out!
And the damage done leaves purple with an opportunity, a low HP Kayak on the site.
The pieces can still be picked back up for Liquid to continue this dominant run.
Four out of five rounds, but Kayak will seal the deal for Fnatic!
The lead is back in their hands!
Oh, that round was all him. That round was all him.
Like, the delay that was set up by Liquid was nigh on Perfect.
The snakebite to stop them, the Molly straight after.
He goes through with his TP and is completely alone.
This is him fighting versus all the opponents while his teammates are just stuck in a corner.
And he gets two openers and then even clutches it out at the end.
This is the the star power that we needed to see from fanatic and runs like this and it will allow them a response
Yeah a moment to breathe but not too much
Still the full buy up for team liquid went away from camel having ultimate same for miniboo
How dangerous that's being cannot be?
overstated team liquid push down mid again this time more tempered it's slower and it's not giving the information away
They're holding for contact.
Crash, he's about to get it.
But he found the info, punished.
Perhaps that flash was perfect.
Still, shops from the side are making this awkward
until the cash goes down.
Now the players on the side have to worry about their flank
and somehow Wayne keeps the trades equal.
A two versus two.
It looks like Nats is going to come around to meet Purple.
They'll both play this from the flank.
That's dependent on what Fnatic do.
They are baiting the plant.
They are worried of almost every single angle, but maybe the correct one out there is watching though.
That was the main fight. Now Nats coming in on the flank.
And they're still just baiting. They're still trying to make him go for this. Make him take the one we like.
It is smart stuff from Fnatic. You want to try and surprise us? We have time to spare.
6-4 and 3-0 starting. It looked like it was all going to slip away, but Fnatic, they found their rhythm again.
Singing from the same hymn sheet and they have put the pressure on to Team Liquid
at 6-4 scoreline and it's time out from Liquid their first in this half
and really the first time in the series that we've seen any signing that
Liquid are feeling the pressure. Yeah. The thing is the first map is two things.
One it was you throwing in a bit of a more risky come.
You throw in more of a risk, and then even if the game was closed, that's okay.
Then they start to run away with it.
Why are your coaches going to be calling a pause?
But now you're on your choice.
You are getting these aggressive fights.
You're getting into positions where you could take over these rounds, but for that, can
the mid rounds are able to recover?
And that's what it's felt like.
It has been a lot of recovery.
It's like someone like Kayak has been able to get in that tiny gap you left and win
the round.
And this one, it was just Afro and Kayak trading effectively into the late and then
then baiting in.
Okay, you want to surprise us, you want to catch us on an off-peak or catch us while
one of us is planting, we won't plump, we'll wait for you.
And those are the moments where I think the boaster always has and always will truly earn
his paycheck is in the middle of the round where he can call, where he can change the
outcome.
We can have some generational insight like Nats might be coming behind.
That's true. It was Perfo this time, the first time at least.
First idea. Already baited the plan.
But if you're always watching for gnats, maybe you'll catch someone else.
Well, there you go. All part of the game plan.
So it's Tom, jamming in, a liquid, four on the board, and aggression in the game.
Two rifles, I don't know if it's for Miniboo. Look, they're still pretty decently armed.
The Fnatic have been pushed back from ADB control by the low buy.
Again, I think they've made the right call by respecting this even though there are some missing pieces for liquid
They won't be pulling any punches with what they've got although now many result should be there anymore
That's the problem that all doesn't last that long if you don't kill anyone
So it's faded because they sat so far back one of the main pieces is gone
I'm a little bit nervous
seeing that over to strike offline because there's been so many set plays involving the slows and with
Also having the convergence path, there's real potential to combo those two ultimates together, which is again something we've already seen.
And with Fnatic playing so slow, that potential builds and builds and builds. You can even see that Wayne is sat in the sport.
He's making sure he can rotate into the right place. The problem is, they've kind of been faked out and that's going to make it a lot harder for him to do his job.
Two players spotted as well, towards this B site. All the info there for Fnatic.
there for Fanatic. Olds coming online in this and the next round.
This could be a dominant close to the half.
Team Liquid trying to thin out that herd,
but only the one to be found in the trade.
So quick from Fanatic.
There is nothing to be done, but sit and watch as Six turns into Seven.
Fanatic. One round left to play in the half,
and it looks like they've recovered control.
Yeah, unfortunately on the defense,
it is a lot harder to avoid Alphia.
He is 14 and 7 right now,
and it's just been ripping heads all the way through this half.
I think it's, I don't mind the idea of having those reactive ultimates,
but with the Dimensional Drift online,
I think Kayak was able to get them so much information that they're like,
okay, at some point we are going to see Wayne pop this ult,
so we just have to be aware that we need an angle to play around,
and that's exactly what they did.
Well, one last to play for, and you see what I was talking about.
Vipers pit, nightfall, and showstopper, all available for Fnatic,
All forget in post bomb. It's pretty good. You've got a whole round
in front of you and for team liquid
The expectation clearly in fanatics camp is that there's going to be some aggression
The one ult that they have certainly lends itself to that in the form of the convergence path on camo
So you see fanatic just sit back they're willing to let liquid make the first mistake
And they know that if it comes to crunch time, they stand a pretty good chance with the old said God
Provided alpha stays alive. He's the guy that's got to get them in
Yeah, luckily Kayak has also been having a pretty good game. So they've got a decent back up
Four players on this A site all setting up ready around that singular all the man on the other side
It's nuts. So
fair, it's not a bad man to leave alone, but I
Think this might be easier said than done. Alfie already setting up 40 seconds left
No one is even close to rotating they'd have to deep through the TP
He enacts as bad as it could have gone. Viper on Viper, that catch takes him down, that leaves the site open for free.
Nightfall will be thrown in, they've got the information, but this is where that fast-flying through the TP needs to come in,
and the show-stopper is gonna buy the bug, go buy the bug, no, he's just gonna send it.
Yeah, he's done damage on the Camel down here, goes to Convergence Pad, now trying to dive on in, could be pressure for Alphier to deliver down below.
Who guard he's been spun on by Miniboo?
Another perhaps, but no, the catch is there to greet him.
A lead presence sent his way, Wayne.
Look at the runways being sliced up and fagnatic.
Four versus two, the gob-like performance needed for Liquid,
needed from Camel and Perpo as the time ticks.
Another foul, and it's down, it just caught.
Yeah!
They've done it! Every shot landed for Team Liquid!
And a defuse puts them 7-5 at the halftime.
That round looked like a done deal, Tom.
I had genuinely baffled by the fact that they'd managed to turn that back around.
I was fully convinced after the night that this was completely closed.
Nonetheless, I need myself a breather, so let's go down to Lou,
who's standing by with a lovely interview.
You know, this face is very, very well because yesterday they were fighting for their lives
on the VCT EMEA stage.
Thank you for joining me, Mimi, Staxo and Beyes.
Beyes, I heard that you have no more voice after the casting yesterday, so I'll spare
you on this one.
Our first question goes to you, Staxo.
You know, what happened yesterday?
It was, you know, an amazing comeback against Fnatic, which is a team with a lot of stamina,
a lot of experience.
Looking back at it, like, how did you do this magic, basically?
Good question, I think until now I still don't know how we did it, you know, reverse sweeping
like team like Fnatic, I think it's a huge rollercoaster of emotions, we're really proud
of that, you know, I think you can hear in my voice, we still didn't get through it,
you know, two hours of sleep.
Did you manage to get some sleep?
Yeah, two hours.
Ah, two hours, two hours and then straight to the arena to watch the party.
Speaking about Watch Party Mini, I wanted to ask you, you know, how is it to be in the arena with no pressure, no anti-strat to prepare, you know, your job is done basically to qualify for Masters in Thiago, so do you enjoy, you know, resting from the kickoff marathon, just watching the others play and fight for their lives?
Yeah, I mean, it feels very refreshing being here, you know, being able to watch friends like Vekash, you know, play, it's amazing, and I'm just happy to be here, happy to enjoy our Watch Party with Bayaz, talk to the gentleman's community, you know, and just enjoy, it's amazing to be here.
And I haven't played it into play of course, of course real quick team liquid of nothing for these finals
For me for nothing for nothing, okay, let's see if that you can indeed take the win on vine. Thank you so much
Well, this is pretty unanimous up there. We've got one for fanatic and two for
Not much going for team liquid so
So that's because they're trailing by two, but after that first map, I'm pretty afraid of what their attack side can do.
They looked so...
The last round, especially man, fighting back their crash, he's finding his first knife kill in VCT and then this happens to him.
Guys, it's madness.
Like what we've just witnessed and that's what Liquid have kind of been doing throughout.
They pulled off these absurd rounds to get them back into the game.
Now, you have yourself a pistol victory, your level.
You're going into that attack slide that was so dominant when they played versus heretics
But again
Anakav already seemed to stabilize seemed to adapt seemed to have those calls that
Can turn things and that guy's already under pressure. He's running for the hills
He's seen the double dive into the site and he's having none of it
Understandable
for the post, but that guy is going to be caught, pincered on both sides.
Nice play by Liquid. That aggression doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
There's still three players moving towards the spawn. Nats is wrapping up behind, doing damage,
being a thorn in the side, in the back for Alphayar as Catamow has 10 HP.
He takes quite a brave fight indeed, but he's got the info.
Last two players fully spotted, and you can see Liquid ready for every engagement sent their way.
Even if Mini-Boo goes down, well, oh, I was gonna say he's likely to.
Never mind. Little help from his friends.
And Team Liquid find the pistol. That gap is closing in on Fnatic.
Yeah, this is always the most terrifying part when you face off against this liquid side is,
I feel like this is now the perfect way to activate Nats.
Like you have this super fast-paced aggro into the site.
Pat stations, everyone rotates into position.
Nats is like, yeah, chill and so on.
Like, he's always been that extra layer that's so hard to play against,
but in this sort of setup, in this sort of meta,
it's perfect to just have him in that backline,
and that's something that you could even see.
Fanatic were looking like Alfie didn't just walk with his back turned.
He was looking for where Nats is, but that has always been an issue,
especially on this map, is there's knowing he'll be somewhere,
and then there's dealing with him.
Well, the easy follow-up as it often is,
And the question for Liquid is can they hold on to all those weapons?
They brought four and three Bulldogs as well, so still standing a pretty good chance when
it comes to the next round even without the numbers advantage they're likely to have when
grouped up.
And hello, Miniboo got forced out by a Nade, but forcing the fight didn't take it out of
his favor.
Boster and Alpha, the last two, and Bobby got decisions here.
Do you care about...
Oh, goodness.
Oh goodness, do you care about giving the mobs?
What do you value finding some for yourself more and it looks like...
What just happened there, bro?
Alright, it ends up flawless.
No mistakes made by Liquid and even Natsis, scratching his head a little bit.
Alright, he's getting some style points.
He's getting tricky with it.
Seven of seven.
That second pistol once again.
putting liquid back into favor and this is where we need to see that response
once more. From Fnatic they will come in with the rifles, they will come in with
everything they need but their opponents also have rifles mostly and I'll
be honest the SMG for Miniboot not that much of a detriment with how fast he's
moving. They didn't seem to hold him back last round but now you're up against
rifles harder to make it work already on the site.
You've seen the dodge off the stun,
but still maybe who finds one boaster on the trade at least.
And now a 4v3 keeping control of the round.
The cash comes to help out, but boasters double.
May have sealed the deal.
Good damage coming in from Natsby.
Two players low.
Still three rifles coming forward for Fnatic.
You always have to feel nervous when it's Nats on the other side,
but not this time.
Boaster was the one to take over at being able to get in quick enough because that's been their issue
Well, that's a lot of teams issue when you have this dive when you have this fast-paced take
You normally don't have the support. So we just have to run in and take those firefights
Fanatic back onto the ball, but that was the bonus as you said that the SMG they didn't seem to hamper
mini-boo too much, but
Now it's got himself a phantom
Well a minute thirty and it seems like we're going to be pretty quick with this one.
Even with the ability to TP back the whole squad is behind Camo and he doesn't seem to
be going anywhere.
He wants to go forward.
He wants to push through with the score.
Oh no!
Try!
Wayne puts two in the ground.
Numbers back even for a moment.
The boaster pulls the advantage out of thin air.
I don't think he wants to keep fighting here though.
A three versus two, a judge on the retake for Vikaj. If they don't push into him, that's going to be a tough one to make work.
Should be some weapons to pick up behind him.
And indeed they will just wait to take this together. Only two left, but it's Wayne and Nats.
Nats is facing the wrong way. Oh, it should have been Freeland. Even still, he manages to catch.
Crashy's and Wayne in clutch scenarios has been sublimated. He needs to get past this utility now. The judge should be deadly about Boester.
Is that it again?
Climbing off that scoreboard.
Leading by example and extending Fanatic's lead by two.
Yeah, I'm having a great map here as well.
You know, for Bozer, I think he might come into this
as the lowest rated player in the league.
In the end, I mean, considering the fact
that it's not like they've gone for that low bracket run
early on.
It weathered some storms and I think it just again
goes to show the fact that not only is Fanatic
stacked with individual talent,
But this man, he brings a lot to the server.
It turns to that leadership,
that's why they didn't bomb out early.
And now when he's firing as well,
he could have some problems brewing.
Team Liquid call a timeout at round 17,
a two-round deficit,
but a little bit of momentum building up for Fnatic,
and they want to put a stop to that
before Fnatic starts to believe again.
But he's done one in the last couple of rounds
to just keep advantages.
Like, I feel like we've had the back and forth,
Kayak's early double, and you have the response,
but his goal was just get one,
keep the advantage and then we just trade effectively. We keep it basic, keep to those fundamentals.
And that could be enough to do this because you start going for those riskier plays, you start going to be a hero versus this liquid squad.
And hey, maybe Wayne wins a 1v3 while he's on 5 health.
You just need to be careful with this liquid squad because although in the early stages of this tournament where, okay, some of the players were maybe not on the correct
We've seen swap-ups to put camo into position, top of the board by the way, and even Nats like swapping into...
Okay, I'm just gonna go back to my Viper. I'm gonna go back to my scythe to keep things more comfortable.
You do still now have even more so have to be careful when these players are feeling good because they've been in such great form.
I do much rather seem purposeful on the sky rather than the fade. I feel like his initiator you told has been shaky.
He was at least with Skye, although in the initiate he can at least play it as a duelist as we've seen.
He's flashing for himself and, uh, maybe just give me Yoru.
But now it's good to have that little bit, you've seen the value of the dog, the value of the info on the flashes as well,
but often used individually. He hears Alpha in a lot of trouble.
He's dodged that hinder, and Campbell's gonna have a much tougher time taking him down, you would think.
Nois responds with Vakash keeping the numbers in alpha.
He's gonna use an orbital strike.
Hey, for a round like this, Liquid have gotta be happy to already get a big ult out of the way.
Also, Wayne has got quite far.
Like, the rest of the players are almost selling the idea that they're falling back off this,
and he's just walked into lamps.
Now, it's a good thing for the space he's taken.
It's a bad thing because he has the spike.
So if he doesn't get two kills here, they've dropped the spike, he got nothing.
That was the low speed bar. I thought for sure he'd at least come out with one, but...
And now this becomes impossible because it was lower weapons so the expectations
there would be difficult anyway.
And it's just a clean up crew, 10 rounds for Panatic.
They lost their own map choice but their opponents is looking pretty good.
And it's indeed, yeah but I suppose as well you look at Corrodon the surprise factor definitely comes into play.
And Des talked about it, I think Kukku was saying that you know, you come into that matchup and you know,
you only get to prepare for what's coming your way for the, I mean remember Liquid didn't just sit
back in a sort of half setups they were getting aggressive and the only time
the fanatic had to counter that was in the loading screen so it very much
limits your ability to react we saw their game challenged from the very
second the barriers went up fanatic at the play a different game than they had
rehearsed but here on bind everything's going according to plan three round gap
fanatic in the lead and a chance to basically make this B05 a B03 put us
One to one
Once again aggressive, but he might have dealt a head shot. He's received or his teammate
I should say received one trying to swing from mid
Does have his ultimate online
The problem is is
I'm fanatic of had those disadvantages a lot of the time we have seen those
Individuals try and turn the rounds back
I like the setup though playing contact with the couch
But he's not going to be able to stop Minibus just too quick on the slide to deal with and now that singular
This advantage has doubled
TP taken but it's the seekers here that make this a very tough task Nate's an early break the seekers stop the neon from push
Oh, but now we're in a bit of trouble
He was left reeling spinning around that spike
I'm not sure where the danger was coming from and the trick was it was from all over 10 to 8
Two round gaps solid response from liquid and four ulti's coming into next. I love the fact that you probably in that moment
Child like this this for this foreign child this foreign child is a second, but that means there's what?
That's the moment is that's when it first clicks in your brain
There's four players one place that means Naxx is in the other just claiming that additional space
Hi, so please take kills, boss.
I think why is he pushing?
10-8.
First buy-around on the board for Liquid, but...
As you said, a lot to play with in this one.
Showstopper. It's been baited out.
They've got me on the way. Can he find something for it?
Not quite.
Mini-booter, one person, quick enough to escape.
The Overdrive has faded as well, so it's a trade for a trade on those ults,
but I'll be honest, I think Liquid will take that.
Definitely. Yeah, a huge danger taken out and although midi-boo can do just the same.
That showstopper can pick up a whole lot more, a whole lot faster for Fnatic.
Waiting outside this site. All five players are here and although they're sitting in the smokes containing the space
they haven't yet decided to strike until Alpha goes up top now.
Here comes the invasion of the A site. Fnatic, they've already found two, both falling into the hands of Alpha here.
Someone has to fight back on Liquid if the climb back is to continue
And it will be the pit from Nats put in so late, a danger lurking as they spotted him.
The Yoru's looking to push on Thurpey.
Hold on, boasters going down, Shawty!
Turn Nats grabs a duffel and the Chats still alive!
The duelist of Purple, as we know him.
Here on the sky, pumping the flashes to buy them time and so on!
For the home run, it's a wrap-ball clutch!
And Liquid have taken this in to punching distance!
Holy Nats!
Holy Nats has the call to do that.
I can't balance.
I'm a serious hero!
Yeah, I was sat there thinking,
there's no way he could even get back into his own pit,
but that was never the plan!
The plan was to leave everybody low enough
for his teammate to close out the round.
Let's go boys!
These are the absurdities Holy Liquid could achieve.
And what was looking so good from Fnatic is again dealt a death blow by Nats.
Anyone else in that situation, yours is just on you and you're getting spammed yet,
that they're a little bit too far away. Nats doesn't know that. He took a risk, he rolled the dicing.
Look at him!
Dishing out snake eyes to the opposition, he's already found the opening.
Looking for a bit more and we're all back. Never mind, that's gonna save my punishment.
He was pushing down close, but it made no difference, no corner given by team Liquid and in-zone flawless to put them neck and neck.
And as Fnatic started to build up momentum, the wind is ripped from their sails at timeout.
The final one we'll see on Bind. Both teams pushed to the limit, but it's Fnatic that are already a map down.
Every time, and I think that, okay, this is the moment that Liquid might just slip a little bit.
You just see some of that brilliance, you see some of those moments that they've been doing this all week.
They've been doing this all the way through their fight in that lower bracket.
We mentioned it, the conversation of last year where they fell into the lower bracket immediately
and needed to win five games in a row to make it to Masters.
This year, they fell twice. They were given an additional lower bracket, which almost seems unfair.
And then now on that road again four wins out of five the last would be defeating fanatic and again
Eliminating them from kickoff contention not going to the first Masters and liquid obviously they made it to every global event last year
They are getting more and more
To look like a squad that are gonna do it again
And without a doubt the performances we're seeing here the innovation as well just looking
back to the previous map one day and so much changed.
Really feels like the sky is the limit right now and is gone.
No disrespect for purple and it is going to be fanatic that have to fight their way back
in terms of the context of this series.
Even the map win will just put them even and for now that is being pulled into question.
I believe it's three in a row for Team Liquid.
And after using up their final pause, the final pause of Bind.
Aggression towards B Long, the trade is very good for Liquid.
They continue to get ground, but eyes drawn towards the B site means back turned on A.
And that's where Nats is filling in that space.
He has gone so far back to prime Nats with the space taken!
The Kans can watch the angle all he wants the only thing he'll see is a bullet speeding towards his temple team liquid
four versus three post plan momentum orbital strike and
The old-time camo the convergence path could either one could lock in this round
Look how far back they're sitting. You can see all the spams or everything being used to try and delay them
Crash has got it to heart though. Honestly not bad, but Naxx has already taken another name. They're trying to heal him while he pushes.
There goes the Molly. And now he's in the corner, they spammed. Why would they check this? They do. Crash is clear as it again.
A chance of spammed for both of us, right? This is getting interesting. But can he tank the damage?
You'd have to go all the way through this. It's going to be close enough! Close enough! A nice attempt!
But now crashes with little to no time.
It will be the round of the liquid.
And the other Buzztloff, Util, does the job.
That was so close, but you could see it from the get-go.
Fnatic were playing up against a stacked hand,
and they just didn't have enough playing with a card
less in their own.
The Molly that was sent through followed the snake bite,
and then the orbital strike.
Look how close it is.
16 health and frankly, I don't even call that a pixel away.
Do you think as well if he's full health?
Is that enough?
Because he was even a little bit off.
I'm not sure what health he was on.
I think it was about 89, I don't know how many.
Well, yeah, I think he survives another tick.
That's all he needed.
So I think that was the littlest fan from that.
That's devastating.
And the round that's in it, Tom,
that puts Fnatic down to pistols.
11-10, the lead taken out of their hand
with no chance to fight for it.
until Liquid push up to 12 until they all,
not just on the home stretch, they're knocking on the door
and Fnatic left in the dust.
One chance to fight for this.
They need to push it to OT.
And there's no way to this one, I'll tell you that.
No!
You know what, there's food that ends on floors
with style, Liquid looking to send Fnatic home.
Two maps would basically be a bad sentence, they need three in a row and right now Liquid look like the better squad, he's just 360'ed him.
He's going for high school phase and optic clips.
Like what is this? Is he making a montage with game?
That's the Nats factor, 24 and 13.
You could spend a whole day prepping for what this man has done in the past.
What he's going to do with dealing with him is a problem.
This round they've got him. They found him.
Raise more pieces to the puzzle boaster on the corner.
He's going to touch the ult, gives him a way out of there,
but he's under serious pressure to spam.
Not quite catching him, and this time the defense hold the line.
Oh yeah, even with the one for Camo, so much more needing to be done.
The playing towards the spawn could put problems in.
In fact, it does. Camo lands it. TP can be taken.
Two versus three and the A site will line open.
Where do they go for the plant?
I mean, they have control over spawn.
It's a right call, nice and open as well.
Even though it's bathroom, you have to be scared.
This is gonna steal information out of the hands of Fnatic.
And with a deep position from Camo,
he was playing here until a matter of seconds ago.
They know that nobody's coming from the spawn.
They know that they'll be wrapping around
Then Camos connected the dots for his triple.
The numbers, even the time ticking and fanatic are the ones
that need this and a follow up.
They've got to pick up the pace.
Oh, wait, the Camos got the ball.
They had it closed with the ace.
Camo cleaning up puts them 13 to 10, two to zero,
and one map away from Santiago.
Your body knows. A sense of victory. Seize when mind, movement and gear ignite as one.
Now step into your zone, designed to win.
Winman... Winman World...
Have a break. Have a KitKat.
Winman World, while wanting a well-won break.
Vamos!
I
Let go gives you wings
Never made a wrong decision, it's got me walking different
I stay gassed up, please point the oppositions
No scobies, no coaches, no I ain't with raw precision
I win and got my bit of prick, a hundred figures
They once was competition, now I ain't sittin' with us
Been on the wave since we've been away
Snatched the game and now we're here to stay
you
you
you
you
you
You
the first one. Team liquid is
fired up to Oh, against
Fnatic in this lower bracket
final. This is bind. It was
there, my fake, but
historically fanatic looks so
good on this Billy, but like
we just have the number. Yeah,
liquid continue to be flawless
on this map throughout kickoff.
So far. They obviously knew
coming into it that it was a
strong map for them. So not to
I thought it was team react fuck but when it was like I can't hear anything.
Well that's not what he said.
For pain, for air purposes.
Take the phone, take the phone.
No one's paying.
I was impressed though.
The thing for me, coming into that, not necessarily an agent composition switch, but liquid continuing
with this, running it down.
Yes.
Perfos said that it was like yes it's similar to this, we thought we were going to lose.
Corode, we just wanted to come in, frag out.
For me, this was just another example of getting their faces, applying pressure to Fnatic,
making these scrambled mid-round decisions.
What was actually fascinating is
Liquid started quite aggressive early on, this map Billy,
and then Fanatic just had their number.
They were able to get back into the lead,
they were able to shut them down,
but Liquid literally did not give up, they just kept going.
Yeah, I think it's really weird though,
because if you're Fanatic, you kind of
should recognize the composition that you're up against, right?
When you look at Liquid's composition,
the only real information gathering the tool
that they have in this composition is that sky,
which, shout out to the sky, honestly,
I thought I was watching Jack I go in the server there, um, but yeah, like you recognize
that that's what you're up against.
You know playing against this composition that they are going to be looking to get aggressive
on this defense.
They are going to be looking to try and isolate those fights to be able to get that man advantage
where they can.
And you know, they were successful and been able to do that a lot of the run.
I think an argument you made here is the trust now again.
This being the perfect example here, confirmation on the location of somebody and it's it's
Kamo and Minibu really, really finding the feet in these roles, feeling happy now by
the double dualists and how to actually play it most efficiently.
And speaking of confirmation of location,
Nats location was continuously a thorn in fanatic side.
They're like, oh yeah, there's four people here.
Oh wait, that's four out of five.
Where's the other one? Where is he going?
And it's just, what Nats has done.
Yeah, again, we've had this conversation so many times over the last five years.
And Tom nailed it again.
It's for a team now to go over and above in terms of regression,
in terms of productivity.
Nats is still that kind of outlier, right?
He's still able to find value in these situations.
It's just throwing Fnatic's macro off entirely.
They have to address certain things
that are not necessarily having to deal with,
I guess, usually against other opponents,
particularly being liquid.
They're a team that likes to play starting.
Nats is a very methodical IGL,
but now with four people going forward, running it down,
you've got Nats just sitting back chillin',
it's the worst thing to have to deal with.
Yeah, I think that we have always kind of highlighted Nats
and Bind being his kind of playground.
Nats on Bind, what could potentially go wrong?
Well, it's Nats.
He's gonna be able to find you.
He's going to be able to get those kills and he's also going to be able to turn around rounds that almost look
Loseable turning into like winning rounds as well for his team. So yeah
He's just the king of bind at this point confidence very much on the side of liquid
But abyss is coming up next and this is a map for fanatic that
They looked confident on even yesterday. I mean crash. He's an abyss
They're more I kind of do I guess but high block you're like you're using words
The confidence discussion is just out of the window for me. You lose bind
you lose a 5v2 to close out the map and camo's acing confidence for me is just a
discussion I don't even want to have when it comes to my now so speak your
truth King speak my truth they're not confident I come back to the same thing
yesterday they're questioning a decision-making in game Milan asking
things like are we panicking now's the time to panic switch something up if it's
anything else you've worked on go to the second third page of the playbook
because right now that this series is passing them by.
So Billy, are we panicking?
Luckily for Fnatic, Abyss has been a flawless map for them in kickoff,
so they can at least feel good about that.
Obviously the last time that they played Team Liquid,
I believe they played Team Liquid on this map, and I don't know that.
Hold that thought for a second,
but that's what they can at least find confidence in, I think here.
Team Liquid have changed their composition around.
They were obviously running the Breach Tejo previously.
Something else now?
Yeah, they've been really running back into that double duelist identity.
I will come back to the point now. Yes, I want to see them really, really double down.
Lohan's talked about finding their identity, figuring out how they want to play the game.
Double duelist. Let's see it. It's working really well for them. Why stray away from that?
Yeah, I want to see them running. I want to see them continue this as, you know, for, yeah.
The guy on the screen right now, Perpo, for me, is having a standout performance today.
Again, in situations where I think we've probably seen him struggle within the initiator role,
We've seen him obviously dip in both sides of this double-jewelous application, but right now Perpo is on fire
And let's not forget fanatic now have to reverse sweep in order to make it to master Santiago
Oh, I can't possibly go wrong
They have not been able to do that since stage one of 2024
I believe it was so it's definitely an uphill battle for them
Considering that they got reverse swept yesterday as well
How is that going to be affecting their mental knowing that massive mounting that they have to climb?
For me, Fnatic, looking into this map, again, my eyes go towards Vekage. He was insane yesterday on Abyss.
Certainly a driving force for Fnatic.
You can see any surprises really here in terms of the composition.
Nats looking back onto the Cypher.
Yeah, I think when I'm looking at Fnatic's composition here, I'm looking at the stopping power that they're going to have
against this Wele and that Neon that they have.
I'm thinking about how amazing Alpha and Boster have been looking on that B site with their defensive setups, right?
I'm looking at Vekage and how much value he's going to be able to get off of that Zero Friend,
right off of that KO knife.
Already seen an example here though,
Liquid obviously doing the homework
in terms of the Corode South's route
for their over the Sniffer out.
They were just abusing B on repeat.
So again, whether that's the fact that here,
how quickly do we see Fnatic adjust some of these
defensive sets up, particularly seeing them
start on that in the first half?
And if anything, that's what's, I guess,
the most lackluster this time around is,
Fnatic as a team, we expect to be able to adapt quick.
Yeah, for sure.
And like, it is a big ask, you know,
they were playing in a BO5 last night,
having to ask them to adapt quickly
is almost difficult. And I think that's why in that previous map I struggled because I
thought that they would adapt based off of the composition that they do.
I think this has happened into some of this fanatic or a team that have struggled four
years to adapt quickly. They talk about coming into fresh matches, having a lot of prep time
ahead of season start, ahead of it. I think that's something that they've trended way
behind what we've seen historically. And now, a series by series basis with Liquid
making changes the way they've played today, it's a total curveball to fanatic.
But if you want to go to Santiago, if you want to go to the internationals, you need
to be able to adapt and you need to be able to deal with the curl of balls that they throw
at you.
Yeah, for sure.
I think as well, like coming into this, we had already set up.
Liquid are a team that love to change competitions, especially when it gets deep into a playoffs
run like this.
So Fnatic coming into today, they should have known this would happen.
This is do or die for Fnatic.
They have to win this map if they want to stay in the running for Santiago.
Liquid, however, is looking cool, calm, and collected as they are one map away from punching their ticket.
We'll head over to our casters for our third map of the series, Mitch and Thalm.
Third and maybe final indeed for Team Liquid.
It's a surprise. A 2-0 from this point. I don't think anybody expected that,
especially not with how dominant it has been for Fnatic to break the kickoff curse.
They're gonna have to lock in here and now.
Yeah, and the fun thing is, is we've spoken about them going for double duelist to double dive.
We've spoken about how they swapped comps a lot, especially when they've taken an L.
But the combo they ran when they played heretics was a double dive. It just wasn't this one.
Bringing in the neon onto Abyss. It's not something I expected to see, I'll be honest.
It's definitely not one of the most common picks. And the old combo they were running was Waila Yoru,
where on Yoru Camu went 29 and 17. So he was sick on the Yoru. They've removed that completely.
Now I can only assume that is the miniboo comfort. He's been unreal on Neon, but I want to see what he's about to do with it.
Oh, here we go. What could be the final map of the series, and that's going to be the case for all of them.
Team Liquid set themselves up for success, and maybe even for Santiago.
I have a chance, maybe the double cages have given away the game, but that was all part
of the plan.
Drag the Rotates to the A site, then catch them in the chaos.
Really well done by Liquid.
That late mid-aggression has given them so much space, and Kayak is not only surrounded,
but he's just getting caught inside the smoke, that's not gonna help him, that is, but he's
just giving him a bit of cover, I guess, and well, maybe it's rocked down!
Oh my god!
Well, a 3D3 out of nowhere, and Kayak's somehow still alive.
He's just holding the line, he's buying time, and that's where Boster strikes, and looked like the game plan was masterful.
Now Nats might be walking into a locker on the other side, as a man just waiting in the corner, and that's a freebie for Becash, leaving only Purpo standing.
We've talked about his sky, we've talked about that almost dualist-esque ability.
But this one's going to be rough.
Vakash waiting, a flash ready if he needs it, but he's just going to go for the timing.
Looses the fight.
Isolated from the rest of the team, and they swing before the pin.
No chance.
And with Tyre getting his third of the ram, I'll be honest, that was the only way they
won that, because the initial plan, it's a reverse liquid.
It's, oh, we go super aggro, and then Nats backstabs.
He was the aggro, and the rest of them backstabbed.
I have really remarkable work from Kayak.
Oh, he should have been 100% dead.
There is no scenario which he should get out of there.
I genuinely think this might have helped a lot.
Just to give him that extra split second to adjust.
And I actually thought he was going to just sit inside it like hope maybe they would check me.
But no, he takes the fight perfectly.
It's fanatic one to zero up a pistol under their belt. We've seen this story before
Liquid scary when the rifles come out, but this time they made an investment early
They went for the outlaw and they tend to fight back. I love this by Tom
You've got pistols that just need to do ten
damage, but on the other side a single shot's enough to kill and kayak already got two has made this investment
basically no one void
Yeah
Unfortunately, you can buy one, but he can buy one with shields.
That's kind of the difference, making that's why he survived and that's didn't.
Still opportunities to make this costly, but it also means that their first proper buy
is going to have a weakness, is going to have a piece missing.
And if they don't do any damage for it, that's not really going to hold much value.
There's no way they expect anybody to be here.
I'm running down from purple to clip off the rope, but it isn't in so far as for Fnatic, a clean start again to this map, but Liquid have not been shy of the comebacks in the early game.
Don't expect to see Alphier there too much, I don't think the Vice is going to be pushing me incredibly often, but he only had a share or so, it was worth it.
Now it is in the back of their mind, how quickly was he able to take that space?
Oh, okay.
They're for Fanatic. A 2-0 start is what they need.
They need to piece that together from here.
Remember last map was 3-0 up and then Team Liquid, they stopped pulling punches.
How many presents are there?
If you can remove Nat, he only has a pistol. Careful.
I don't want to give him that outlaw, but they really are putting the pressure on posters.
has already gone walk about that cat sitting backwards put the pressure instead
onto crashes it's done well honestly didn't have much to play with takes a
kill slows them down and now the opponents are encroaching on that
flank but that's still alive they do have to give the game away yeah that's
always the problem a little bit of extra information team liquid know there's
someone coming behind so you might have to fight for some space and the decision
to wear that's gonna be it it but hasn't been made just yet in fact they go back
to the site, a double flank now coming through, and Fanatic can put pressure on from all sides,
and leave having the riskier of the usual angles, and as they push on out, there was
a Jettens, Naps tried to catch them off guard up there, and realized, as nobody's home,
the push came in from everywhere else, and Wayne...
Well, he's actually got a chance.
He's won, crazy arounds in the past, and 1v1 first, Rame has done it again, the Red Bull
clutch to deny the 3-0 start and a very early interruption to the momentum
fanatic look to build. I'm never gonna get bored watching this guy play. How does he do it?
He's sticking with the late round and he just never seems to miss a single bullet.
Kayak, if that had landed he would have been dead but it's just wrecking with a new one.
So many clutch plays for a man who's not only an import from another region but a
youngster at that. A hot prospect no doubt. And yeah sure, if you look at that as a bonus
round and fanatic that's great. That's definitely a wonderful star. That's exactly what you
want, yeah. It's not exactly what you want though. In return mini boost taken to A site.
The plant can now, Jesus he's taking the spawn, he's going across it. He's running it down
and Camo's the one to pay the price somehow. Nate even gonna cause it. But if a problem
in terms of planting they've got to go for that back side unless they continue
to fight they're gonna have no space left to hold on to these players that
essentially isolated and well they will be destroyed.
Each ball falling is fanatic at their 3-1 on the board.
And look yeah you can look back at the last round and say we've lost a lot of players
it should have been around but they bounced back that's all that matters.
I feel like Kayak's got that look in his eyes of I'm not losing like the way
that he's already been playing so far this game. I think he's 9-1. This round starts
off with him just diving on Nats taking him out. I think he also has one of the more impactful
kills getting back in as well. That one. He can continue up this level of form. It becomes
a different beast and you look back to some of their prior performances and he maybe wasn't
at the peak of what we've seen from him. The Vekos was incredible so it was if we can get
both of them for Fnatic if we're gonna go a little further in this series.
It seems like he was asking me, though, do I stand up? Is that what we do?
But he got up anyways. That's all that High Park wanted to see for Fnatic at 3-1.
Maybe the comeback isn't too far out of the realms of possibility.
Liquid grouped up gonna cause a big problem for Kayak.
It's an outlawed down and pressure under the A site.
Players far back on A as well.
There'll be no chance to really deny this plant unless they want to get crazy aggressive.
But for Liquid, the choice remains. They know they've got main.
Thanks to that trap.
But they're still wanting more space. The trap put up in heaven with a lot of presence there as well, and a great tag early on.
It gets ult if he gets a single kill.
With the damage he's already doing.
That might be enough to steal this round away.
Hunter's Fury for Papo as well. Look how passive he's currently sitting. Another
attack connected. Low players. There's the ultimate available. And there it is popped.
A teammate wrapping around him. Again, he's chipped away. Crash is leaving next to
seal the deal. A catch onto Kayak was enough but liquid to take another round.
That's all they needed. That risky position being taken by Kayak. And now when
you've got a chamber or something like that, sure, you get out of that line
away but with the jet a little bit more difficult. It takes a little bit longer. That's a result they
found a huge play here. Team Liquid 3 to 2 back and forth in those early rounds reminding Fanatic
that this isn't going to be an easy climb back. Already you can see that that defensive economy
is coming under strain. Bladestorm used previously. This is the big investment and a loss here even
even with a steel garden and maybe a hunter's fury for the next,
it will probably give Team Liquid the lead.
Yeah, it's definitely a bit more worrying than just moments ago,
and all it took was a singular outlaw falling into enemy hands.
That was what gave, I think, at least two tags plus a kill.
Oh, mini, boo.
Again, you can see that's just so far away from the rest of the team,
in ground in case fanatic attempt some level of aggression but it's much slower
and probably not what fanatic are used to with how pacey liquid have been but
they're going searching around mid now it does seem like boaster and now Alphia
are aware that this control is coming under scrutiny
There comes the dive, but Camo will be out of there, you'd imagine. In fact he is, but it's Alpha connecting the shot.
Steelgarden online and put through. It should delay, I'm at 33 seconds, that could be enough, but Alpha needs to be so careful.
A cage on the other side, protects Nassar, showing thought, but the span through has dropped him!
Running out of ammo! The only way they can deal with Alpha, but the flank from Reign now fix this.
A competitive round. The spike is dropped in the open. 12 seconds TP available for Wayne.
and they've made the read but Fnatic won't get there in time.
Spike stolen, plant secured.
And Hunter's Fury, post-point two.
They're so far away.
You can see though that Purpo's goal is just basically
to watch if anybody comes in on that flank.
The second they don't, this post-point in main becomes deadly.
As you said, the Hunter's Fury being available.
The main detriment of it is if somebody comes from behind
that they already know that that isn't the case.
The one thing he has to be very careful of though,
Yeah, is it being denied?
And there you go, smart stuff from Becca.
She waits for the first pop, manages to remove it.
Crassie's just trying to block the player from swinging.
They want it together, and the net will hold the line.
Becca's even threw in a little bit of a curveball there,
and it was a flash, but not the one you're taking up.
And thrown in a little flash, and then getting on the defuse,
it made them think for a second, is he on it?
Or did he throw that flash?
What was the time?
In that moment, little hesitation, but it wasn't even needed.
As they are there to clean up in the end, a great round from Alfa though.
That trick that he finds, he has no right getting into the second.
This is why in Corode they don't go to the site.
This is what happens when you do.
I think that as well from Vecas, just a quick thinking.
Because you could see how far away Puppo went.
He's like, I need to be miles away from this, not to hit me.
And then Alchemand still caught him, and now the whole plan is gone.
Yeah, and you knew going into that that the null command had to be a part of it
Otherwise the hundred series would secure the round
Used perfectly
Cap for just the right moment
Two players down and one left to have crashes. Oh my goodness that early impact
It might just have killed this round as the barriers went up for team liquid
And they're on the A site, but the spike is packing spawn flank on flank and the delay
It's causing some caps
But a 10 HP alpha still wins that fight
10 HP
But a headshot is a headshot. That's all you need to remember. It doesn't matter how much health you have
He's still gonna be hard at the angle. It's a bit of a risky fight, but
After getting the info for his team, they're happy to now fall back both players
Locked in as the retake begins many who needed to get something early if beer otherwise
It's going to be very difficult to fight from this point, wonderful flash, Giggs crashes
his third of the round, he started it off beautifully with the Hunter's Fury.
He will keep themselves not only with five on the ball, but also with five alive.
Oh, that's it.
That's beautiful.
I wish I had time.
My God.
How long did that take?
I really just feel like the pendulum swung in the other direction now for fanatic control,
hands tightly gripped around those reins and of all the times to have a big
performance like that again that's two and a half tags two and a half field
sorry coming out of the hunter's fury
a start like that when you need to bounce back is exactly what they were
searching for team liquid though are not happy to see this
they're not happy to see the smiles on the other side of the stage and they're
taking a moment the timeout i wouldn't even say early on
I think it's a good moment for it. They've been able to battle for a couple of rounds, but it hasn't felt consistent
Yeah, what we know about liquid when it comes to the later stages of these halves that tends to be where they put up the numbers
So a both house
Well, yeah, I think off the back of your opponent's getting it in zone flawless it around where you kind of had expectations to at least
Do a little bit of damage that it's not the greatest of signs and also at least for now
It seems like the switch up in double dive is not working
The way it mattered before was that Miniboo would be the one taking the space on that way, and then you had the secondary bow of Yoru coming through.
That was what worked for them, and I think this time that surprise element of the Neon.
The Neon's been okay. There's been moments where Miniboo's got value. Camo's currently 0-7, so he's getting domed for it.
And when you're not having that second layer, when that isn't getting those backstabs, it becomes a much, much tougher game for them to play.
And that's when you add in a fact that Wayne did also win a ridiculous clutch round. This could genuinely be a 6-0 star, or 6-7-0.
Well, round eight. Barriers are up, and Team Liquid, although they got a pacy start towards mid, a bit of a sprint coming in from Miniboo.
The direction will be back towards this A site. It's a weak investment.
Credit saved for the next but that doesn't mean potential is not here.
Betgash needs to have a strong hold or get out of here.
Or he's taking down.
And that hasn't quite landed in time but the info is there.
I think you could deduce that.
A few ults to play with.
What the hell?
Crash, he's tagged to just to help.
Nats is going to land the shot on a pixel angle.
A spam from Betgash.
I was not only found in the kill.
They're going to be careful though. Camo is going to try and hold them.
This will come down to Kayak holding the line he does, he stops them, being able to take too many
and Vekas hits a match, or whilst dark in the meantime, Kayak has just been running it through,
almost flies off the map, but it does not matter.
Vekas runs again, comfortable on this map, and we've got dangerous for a second with an ult or two thrown in.
It's still three players alive for Fnatic.
Yeah, you see how important it is just for him to survive, show pivotal and getting back into that site,
not just stopping them, but seeing Liquid from using that extra utility to claim those deeper fights,
delaying them as the rotates come through.
Then as he breaks in, his flashes can fight so much time, and he's the one holding the line against both.
And these big players in the end...
He's feeling it. 6-2 for Fnatic, and a defense that's shaping up to look much better than what we've seen so far in this series.
They come back, might be too early for it, but Kayak keeps playing like this, I'm starting to believe.
12 and 3 at the moment, I mean, he is having a game.
Oh yeah, Fnatic have been one of the teams that have had reverse sweeps against them before.
Sorry Kayaks, but this time, they're attempting one of their own.
You can't be reverse swept if you're 2-0 down, there you go.
More you know.
But they have lost the player early in this one.
Kayak has been hitherto in a lot of rounds and most of Surprise Factor is met with only
further deficit.
Alphia has redeemed them a little bit but even with Crash he's aggressive.
He's been caught by the cam.
Forced to retreat and while this round is looking bleak, even just escaping might be difficult
on the serious pressure.
He's aware that he's going to get peaked eventually but I think he even ducked on camera to try
get out of the way of that show. Yeah, you can see him laughing on his way out. He knows he's
looking to be alive, but that ain't lasted too long. Time to flee. This team Liquid make three.
Yeah, for Fnatic, look, a lot of this just comes down to the midfights. You start out with Kaiak
going down, and I think that's where the first Domino Crumbles and Liquid have their direction
then clearly defined towards that A site. And I can't fault Kaiak for taking it. It was 12 and
three. How the hell of a start? You know, that's where you got to start. When you're having a game,
playing towards your strengths, playing towards those early fights looking to to force those engagements, but
this timing gets punished. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it from him again though.
Yeah, I think that was definitely like a domino effect round. Like you'd lose him early, you're
trying to recover the re-aggression plays into the hands of Liquid and then they just run with it.
As what's worked out wonderfully with this Double Dive when it's been on point,
good to see that getting back onto the board as well I said he's at a wold full
time in this map so far and we should see him
got what he wanted in the end well players leaning back and you might be
thinking at this stage of the game who calls this tactical timeout is it is it
liquid they win one round but want to make sure they can bounce back and break
the economy of fanatic is it fanatic not wanting liquid to equalize
or is it kind of building his keyboard it is a technical pause we'll take a
little bit of a breather and perhaps a welcome one at this stage for liquid it
has been nothing but individual rounds scattered throughout a sea of cyan and
And this is their chance to connect a second, to follow up, gathering their breath as perhaps
a welcome reprieve.
Yeah, I think for Liquid so far, they had that sort of clutch round, they had the bonus,
I think that was the same, they only just went their way.
There it is.
And then we had this round.
And so we're kind of talking at a point where it does feel like Fanatic are fairly firmly
in control.
So I think for Liquid building on this is going to be fairly important, especially when you
consider a lot of the maps of the BIS we've seen so far, that attack side has been stellar
from the side of Fanatic.
They've enjoyed running the sort of jet dive and leaving Alpha to sort of probe from behind.
I was actually waiting, because it is off to the liquid fans, the let's go tech pause chat, we'd love to see it.
Quick tip for those of you in the audience, if you are going to make a sign supporting the tech pause, cheering it on,
probably don't do it in red. Our stage goes go red and it makes it a bit hard to read, but...
What color should they do it in?
White.
I don't think that will help with the signs that we're giving out.
I don't know if that will work too well, but we'll see.
We'll see eventually.
I think it was, yeah, it was a keyboard issue.
Something that I believe we saw Kamma just pying around with.
So hopefully that will be something that's done fairly quickly.
And maybe he'll even give...
There we go.
Oh, there we go.
High five, I meant.
I thought we were going to have that additional tech voice.
Pretty sure.
High five.
was actually fine. Just the RGB. It wasn't it wasn't given them the light. You need the
atmosphere down. I wasn't getting that wasn't getting the rain. Yeah, if it's not flashing
then no, I mean, what's the point? White LEDs on my keyboard. Come on. My movement will
undoubtedly be affected. Six to three, a three round gap between and fanatic. Well, Kaik
was shut down in the previous round. Looking for that fight on middle. He was 12 and three.
He fell confident and they came out and tapped his head off this round. He's changing stuff
because he's in the same spot, but he's done up in hand.
And he's not looking to give away those opening fights,
but the smoke off on the left side, they can close the distance,
start to get towards this door, break it into defense,
and pressure poster.
Now they get real close to Kayak, and he needs to land the shot,
missing the first, but crashes!
He comes in, a guardian angel to keep them in a 5v4.
His knight in shining armor has just appeared on horseback
to save him in a moment of need.
There's bits and pieces of damage being done.
Kayak, Tag, Boaster, Alpha, all within reach,
but none of those opening fights have gone the way of liquid.
As I said, it's just been blips.
It's been individual rounds that they found.
And unless they can turn this one, it could be more of the same.
Now, unlike in a position that's currently being held by Boaster,
he's so passive, just waiting for anybody to try and cross in from behind,
does leave Alfea on a little bit of an island, though.
And that's the problem.
If he gets taken out, there's much more of a chance.
Look how patient they're being on the rotate.
Fanatic know how much control they gave up.
As all this is cleared, they might start to think it's open.
Camo free beyond the crashes,
but now the whole squad surrounds it.
The off is the first to strike, packed as well.
With a steel garden, although shallow,
it's making it so much easier to cover that ground
and make it towards the site much needed with time low but with Nats the only one standing
and almost impossible clutch presents itself but Nats making the impossible look possible
but still one left to stay alive and hurt the whole rainbow clutch for Nats leading by
example as Liquid make it to four!
It just shouldn't be that round. It just shouldn't be the same as the Wayne one.
It's like they've gone from having the guy who likes to play smokes agents who
can clutch like crazy and they added in a second one just to double it down.
That's just absurd! You go swinging in and every single time he seems to land the
shot that just feels the death-dealing blow. Liquid go from what could have just been one
of Dunst's to back on the ball, but once again it's an opener for Fnatic. They are not wanting
to let this slip, but just look at this. The swing coming out, they don't know Naxx is there,
even still. It's only one this time. Yeah, again, Crashy's sister be commanded that quick trade.
Last time he was ahead of the kill. For Team Liquid, it might look odd, but the Spike and Spawn,
they do have a TP and ult on Wayne to go and steal it back.
They've also got a speedster in the form of Mini-Boo.
Nonetheless, the issue here is not the spike.
The issue is this setup we've seen from Alpha many times before.
This is devastating to deal with.
He's not only going to have a lot of control over that right side,
the wall keeping it safe, the thorns that will be put up,
but now a flash, you can see it on the left, but they can't.
And once this pops, big problems through,
but Lucas tucked in the corner, Wayne couldn't come out to help
to help because of those thorns. Alphier, oh, he's dragging blood on backside. But
Perpo trades it back with three more to find though. This round looks done.
Yeah, they know exactly where he is as well. The dart reveals his position and the fanatic
player is not wanting to give anything over. It might at least give him the plant, but
it would lock him in position.
It would let them know exactly where he sits.
Also likely be a piece of utility that denies him
planting exactly where he wants, no?
He's gonna get stunned up, no escape,
and as free as a kill could be,
the last round was one to forget the fanatic.
Maybe Lee's got the lead at the half,
and most of the time, finally.
Yeah, to see his aim, of course, very important,
and I'll tell you what,
As we go to stage shots, he's still practicing his head, so he's out for boaster.
He's hitting up the body shot, 7-4.
Fanatic had the lead, guaranteed at the half.
Wasn't enough on the previous.
With 8-4, oh, and frustration on the other side of the stage.
Don't give us another tech pause.
I said the LEDs are working fine, we're okay.
We'll carry on.
Now one to play for Tom and look at what they're coming in with on the side of Team Liquid, it looks very scary, three big ultimates.
And very close to the others, but really it's the hunter's fury that can change the round, the other's so situational.
And that can be instantly cancelled by Vakash.
That's the thing, he was so good with the timing of it, that almost doesn't matter, it's the early pop.
Try and catch him now, but...
All it's really given is the space. Vakash has just sat back, they're playing to the retake and that opened up for free.
is exactly what they were looking for.
Crash is not even giving the fight.
Denying utility for the post-farm, and Becash found another.
They're desperately trying to find ground on the liquid side.
Find someone to fight, and Becash is back.
Oh! And in a blink of an eye, it turns!
Leaving it to Boester.
Can he get himself his teammate back?
He should be able to know he's baiting,
he's trying to get them in, and that did no work.
Again, liquid win, an impossible round,
and again, they bring it within two.
7 to 5 at the half fanatic not down and out yet but before we come back for the
second half we've got some special guests in the house let's give some special
welcome to Mimi Akita and Drew from G2.
After G2 qualified for Centrago in LA yesterday I'm very glad to welcome the G2.
Goes in the squad here in Berlin at Chita and you do what a pleasure to have you with me here at the arena.
drew the first question I wanted to ask you is, you know, in DC we tend to have and take inspiration
you know, from VCT teams of course, so I was wondering is there any team that helps you cook
maybe your only inspiration side? I mean it's good to take inspiration from everyone, I think every
region and team has something new. I can just say Grosun, G2, I think those guys are the
standards for fundamentals so it's always good to watch those guys. Obviously right, that is the
the PO answer but we take it there is a lot to take of course from the G2 boys and Akita on
On the personal side, of course, it's a pleasure to have you here with me in Berlin
because we used to be teammates in Zehrens and you were playing solo Duelist
back then with a lot of burden on your shoulders, with G2 it has been a little bit different.
You had Mimi on the Euro duty sometimes, so I want to have your thoughts on this double Duelist meta.
What do you think of it?
I actually like the double Duelist meta because I'm the first Duelist, so Mimi can fill the gap.
If I want to apply so much, you can go somewhere else and like she can also play off so I don't always need to do the hard job.
You have a bit more freedom, right?
Yeah, more freedom, but in attack it's a bit harder for me, but it's fine.
Yeah, a little bit more teamwork and synchronization for sure, with two duelists now.
Mimi, I'm telling you, you played so many grand finals in your career, right?
You know these high-stake matches, so what makes a difference, especially as an IGL, in those tough moments?
I think the most important thing is the confidence and the prep going into a grand final.
If you're confident in your players and your prep and everything that you've done to suck yourself up,
that is what really is going to make the difference in the game.
So preparation and confidence, let's see between Fnatic and Liquid who is the most prepared and the most confident.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you.
Thank you for the playoffs next week and let's see who takes the win between Fnatic and Liquid.
Yes, let's see who is going to take that dub.
Nats leading the squad to a 2-0 advantage in terms of maps so far.
It's looking like he might be hitting another international.
Yeah, I'm just looking at the way those stats have risen.
And I almost felt like they would have gone higher.
Maybe if some of those games were a little bit closer,
it would have kept going up.
He hasn't really made it in some of the cases here
in the first couple of maps, especially on blinds.
I think it might be going off the chart.
We might need to add a new layer after this.
and in the round he won for Liquid making things that little bit closer that's
what's been bringing them home like realistically if you're going off the
early advantages but now they could have won this 12-0 but those clutch plays
those big individual moments have made this one close we're waiting to see if a
fourth map will even be needed or if Liquid have got their plans set on this
defensive side other defenses being for me the most exciting to see like
their aggression on the last two maps is being so consistent. Now a lot of that was you look at
how they're trying to get out of those smokes, be it for example with a sky flash popping out.
That enabled so many aggressive plays in the early stages of the rounds. Now for Liquid this time
it's not going to be as easy to force those aggressive fights, but I would be surprised to
see them put that playbook aside and as the round takes on 50 seconds on the clock,
Look who's pushing up. Thank you, Zilf.
Camo all the way up on B.
That's allowing a full rotation to the A site.
And this is what I'm worried about.
Fanatic have had issues with their plays being very telegraphed.
Already. That has to remove with a shock, though.
A nice start to the round.
And the Spams are going to get him a second.
He's been having his moments throughout this game,
caught by his teammates blind, but if this is a rotation back,
they're going to run straight to Camo.
He's even going to slow them. There's nowhere to go.
They're boxed in, and now the time is ticking too far.
They need to either sprint it back in towards the A site and hope they can kill everybody
One enemy remaining. Well, we'll just give up on the round
This left dollop's out, the A needs to wipe out everybody and not this time
Liquid, kind to six, the distance now just one. Yeah, a very valuable pistol round for Liquid
Right foot forward in this half and fanatic
Again, every round that Liquid take from this point. That's nasty. From this point forward
It's in the back of your mind for more
One round closer
Elimination to kickoff
Being the same old story for you the kickoff curse they call it fanatic
They look great all year except right at the start and even before kickoff when we kicked off partnership
It was a grand final against team liquid after beating them to zero that fanatic lost
The very very first
Ground final we had back in the Colosseum push-up like this is against an eco
They are going all the way round behind them in mid. This is a lineup of players
I don't think they realize how many are here
But mini boo has found the kill kayak
Little retreat, but they got the spike
Yep. Yeah, this is in defender spot two players on a and they're watching for a by the way
It's locked in on Defender Sports.
Yeah, this looks ridiculous.
But it also looks exactly as it expects, considering Liquid have been playing.
He's behind you!
He's always behind you!
No! No! No!
He stole the double knife!
That could have been history in the making!
It is however an Inzo flawless!
Yeah, that's behind you. What a surprise!
Yes, you did!
Same actually, same.
And Jack Geiger for the gun buddies.
I forgot to thank you for mine the other week Jack, but appreciate that on four alt accounts as well. Oh, no
But seven seven double nine it could be double nine it should have been but I think
It's a long shot here. It's a big guess
But I think liquid might be happy with it anyway
Yeah, I don't think that's that salty timeline shows a battle for fanatic
But when it comes to late rounds liquid have always been solid on this map
It's where they put up those numbers and now as we come towards round 15 for fanatic
This is a must win an achievement that has to find its way
Into their pocket or this map is under threat and that's a very very solid opening kill the flag
I got it completely dealt with an alpha turns his attention to the site making it look easy
fanatic
Like a hot knife through butter. They have completely
Dice the liquid up and it's every fight taken every fight one.
Fire a single.
And the question of damage I suppose.
What's up with an answer in favor of liquid?
Eight to seven.
They did that relatively comfortable.
Yeah, that was a nice response.
I think that's the one thing you can do with against this sort of aggressive defensive side is the more direct hits a lot of the time.
You're either gonna end up in a firefight or you're gonna end up in an empty site and both of those are absolutely fine
From fanatics standpoint. I it was a second knife kill. We could have got a two for one
Couldn't a second knife kill of this map of that round
But eight to seven this really could get the full buy back up
They didn't get much damage done in the previous though
So good signs early on for that fanatic attack great flashes bought them the first angle, but look at the rotates
Liquid seem to have their playbook in front of them. They know the hits coming through the rotate
Oh, I think already the laneway is proving to be firmly under the control of liquid another going in their hands with mini boo and now Wayne
Suspicious as the smoke is going to fade soon. He's holding it waiting biting his time and sir
Afterwards
choice of dying to an opponent or dying to the ground so if anything it's it's good
or management from crashes but I'm not sure it was necessarily intentional.
There's a really good trade of Wayne from the grave on himself.
Well well well.
He set that all up.
A mastermind but they were so quick with the rotation.
I thought that Wayne was honestly going to be dead to rights immediately.
Wayne is not picking Smashy.
Look look he's smashing his nose.
Nothing.
Considering many people smashing his mouth a few rounds ago, it's quite funny to hear.
But they talked about Matz on his Villanark and you can see him man, he's having fun down there, he's poking it.
The start here for Nellie, they're saying Kaia back to mid, a score to settle from the last half and he's found himself a double opening adding to his alpha.
And wait a purple, mere seconds into the round finding themselves alone.
Maybe the pointing and laughing was a little bit too much, and I think you landed the beast.
The man that took home the most awards in the MIA last year in his rookie year at the same time.
And you have just witnessed why.
I like this just a pause from Fnatic.
This team's used to playing in the late round.
They managed to get that many openers within the first 15 seconds.
And Wayne, he's almost walked past everybody.
Just bypassing his position, they've sent out the wounded to go looking.
purpose that you don't like that though he's taking zero damage got out lane is
being watched for though and now they know where everybody is they've seen
both players no need to reflight any spot that they've already seen planes
gonna be on B he's gonna make it here in the worst part his crashes go to
backside here when knife out though should be dead to right and it will
crash he's to deal with death blow for now I think purple has an impossible
decision to make. Even going forward at this point is completely null and void. Saving.
Again, they're probably going to be hunting him down and they might even have heard those
steps. I think Crashy's might have. And considering the fact that he's won away from Hunter's
Fury after that previous pick, you know that he's going to hunt you, chase you to the ends
of the earth. I think his path is also not far away. The thing is, you look at Miniboo
one away from ult. That will help him out at least in the next round, but his
rifle would definitely be useful. Kayak's gonna be the one taking the fight.
The puppeteers didn't react. I think maybe expecting there to be a second layer to this.
And while there it was, he was full blind! Completely blind! It still wins the pick.
Eventually, okay, he loses his gun, but he gains his ult. This is not the worst case scenario for him in that moment.
The fanatic though that is the lead back in their hands the back and forth in the second half
Continues the main story was those openers from kayak. It is just sublime
And keep in mind a heartbreak and you could be for fanatic losing out here
They were one round away from qualifying there yesterday
Having to turn around this quickly played up B a five against you know to say historic rivals really is an understatement
These guys have been trading blows since Valorant began.
And in partnership, it was liquid to draw that first blood, an important grand final.
They got one of the coolest trophies we've had in the MEA.
Going back to the Coliseum.
For Fnatic, never since then, that final didn't go their way, and even getting to finals has been a
tough situation when it comes to kickoff.
usually barred out the first few games. Yeah, this is the one place it has been
tough. The caliber of this squad can never be denied.
Starting slow, looking shaky, getting better as the tournament goes on and
that's gonna have to be the story of this series as well. And that victory here
takes us to to breeze and that's one where again I feel like Liquid have set
themselves up for success one of their best maps versus one that Fanatic have
struggled on but in a best of five anything is possible now you look at
this defense four players currently within this B site the trips were set
on the other side meant they would be online unless a kill was found but this
This is dangerous. This is worrying for Fanatic. They are walking into the track, the time ticking down, maybe now with ult online.
A judge still in the corner, it's all falling apart. The shot goes down to one! Just one help!
It's enough for Wade to take out Crashies, and somehow they will win with every player standing!
Fanatic have a chance to extend their lead, but they have tripped and fallen once again.
When you see that damage pop up after the round, someone's bounce might be broken after that.
That's got to be so frustrating.
Shocked our D1 HP.
Both of them sent in as well.
He should have been dead to rights.
What are you doing?
Well, we needed that one real quick.
Quick, nine hit nine, that's the scoreline equalized.
The team liquid, you can see with the weaponry,
Fnatic have its liquid with a clear advantage,
but Kaiak's blade storm has definitely bailed them out
before they're avoiding giving him any chances here.
He's already made it to the back side.
Now there's danger brewing.
It's Natsuh will face this.
Whoa, what a shot by Kaiak.
But he can't get the second, the stun from Miniboo.
It makes it too hard and that flash was so blind, but an immediate response.
Hunters fury online.
Guns can't be taken away by Alpha.
It's how much they want to gamble, especially with Grashu's not having a weapon.
There needs to be a kill, and well there is, but it's too little, too late.
Liquid managed to survive the onslaught of the Bladestorm.
And now they take the lead, finding themselves just three rounds away from Masters.
Santiago and sending out one of their biggest rivals, one of their historic foes, that they have a pretty poor record against overall.
For this squad they're not going to give a damn, especially when you look at the likes of Perpo and Wayne, the opportunity to make it to that first,
that first time international, that's been used for Perpo.
Ah, he drew that. Wayne is a youngster who's coming up to the league for the first time.
Purpo's been around the block for a long, long time. This has been a journey.
Those three rounds are going to feel like an eternity.
Pretty sure since day one. I remember Purpo's name circulating in the very, very early days.
Like the invite-only era.
This is the thing. He was subbed in for Mech in the last match of an LCQ that would have taken him to an international
in which he lost. That was the only map he played in that tournament.
We've then seen him show a brutal shot.
Yeah, the most brutal start to a tier one career ever.
And now you look, he's gone through multiple teams, fought back through the tier two,
now finds himself in a squad that, again, like Liquid are known for making it to those events.
How much damage they do there, that's a different story. We'll have to wait and see, but making it there,
That's already a great start. We've seen a lot from the
gentlemen's guys today, the emotions of making it to these big events, making it
to those global events. Fanatica, no strangers. And what? I wouldn't be the
fool to count them out just yet. The pause has given them some time to talk.
And this has been a half of a map that they are normally very good at, but
Liquid every time seem to be finding answers, finding impossible rounds.
You call a pause and liquid come in with immediate aggression a means these paranoia and the relay ball thrown through neon
Sliding in and sliding right back out the early aggression doesn't find anything
But look at the second layer after talking up in the standard chamber spot now
He's gone creeping that's his taking so much space, but alpha's ready
We've seen that patience before as he sits and waits on mid finally rewarded for it
That leaves a lot of space open for Fnatic to play with.
The PSI has a singular defender, Camus, opted to play with the Judge, which, hey, if he
gets supportive smokes to help him, maybe that will hold some value, but as of right
now, he is left completely in the dark without utility to play with, without any help whatsoever.
He's trying to use the opposing smoke against him, try and hide within it.
And there's a spike on the ground.
He's done well so far, but immediately spammed down.
The rest of the team are only just getting into position.
Mini-boot, looking to try and run through the smoke,
but there is a man on the other side just waiting.
And the hold is enough.
That smoke coming in at a little late, just because he was so isolated.
I kept playing Wayne.
Of course, he was over in A main.
And it takes quite a while to rotate over into a spot where you can get that up.
get that up just a second too late and a 10 to 10 as a result starts with Alpha just having
that patience and waiting for the play down mid after early A aggression being denied,
Fnatic knew that there was likely to be more coming their way.
Liquid's defensive aggression become unpredictable.
That went a long time ago but now they've punished.
The problem is Fnatic have been dealing with the same issue that Liquid had in the first
It's only been individual rounds.
They've still got good ults to play with for this one.
Hunter's Fury available, and this walkabout is happening again.
The drone being sent through to maybe try and deal with Alphie here,
but he's sitting so much further back.
Shocked Arc clearing some of the utility, but that's all a ruse.
And in the meantime, that B site is once again fairly open.
That might be about to try the rinse and repeat.
But those players are heard stepping. There's another drop towards the B site.
That's been paying some info, but
No, we don't see the rotate just yet. It will be Wayne
Now it's to do it all essentially the smoke comes in too late to properly delay them and the flash completely blinds Wayne
He's dead to rights and B has fallen
The battle lost before it began and with camo down the resurgence of fanatic is undeniable
To be no surprise to see Nats here with that wall just fading moments ago.
And even then, Alphier's cleaned up the site so it doesn't matter.
11th for Fnatic, the lead is theirs and it's a nick of time.
The sparks become aflame.
Yeah, it seems whatever was said in that pause is working.
By holding for that early aggression down there,
constantly adapting the setup so that when Liquid get aggressive,
they're not just dealing with the same player, there's different layers to it.
to it, but also I think just the pressure on B. They've noticed now that, okay, they've
been gambling a lot on that A site, having multiple players there and then leaving Wayne
who, I'll be honest, so far has been incredible, but this time was dealt with. The round before
it was Camo, who was dealt with. And once they get into those positions, that's where
it becomes so much tougher for Liquid. They'll take a pause of their own, because this is
the thing, we've witnessed it yesterday. It doesn't matter how close map 3 is when you're
2-0 up. If you lose, you lose. And then the momentum starts to switch, then the doubts
start to sink into the back of your minds talking moments ago about players like Purple,
players like Wayne, who haven't been to these global events, who haven't made it that far,
who haven't had that pressure on you because let's be real, even at this point where both
teams have gone through a lower bracket or dropped down into a lower bracket, people
look at this and go, okay, well, Fnatic would still be favorites, right? They would still
It will be the team they almost won it yesterday.
When you're 2-0 off, that's amazing.
When you let one map slip, that's the door open.
The time out.
Now I ended in the timer taking away once again
for Team Liquid and attempt to-
That's crazy.
Match things up, 20 different TL players.
Cross 15 matches, my goodness.
But I think that also highlights how Team Liquid
are a squad that have always been in the pursuit
of perfection.
They want the results towards the top, but if they don't get it, they're willing to make the changes they need to
to make sure they do next time.
The buy in this round for Liquid.
Not the best.
I think that was something that was almost definitely discussed.
Do we want to risk it in this round and maybe have two not perfect buyers?
Or do we want to go with the low buy and maybe have to fight for our team?
They can't put on B.
It's understandable. The last couple of rounds have been late B hits,
so they stack it early.
It's time for that swap and directly hit A.
They get themselves the space
and now they get the post as well.
Now you've got convergence, Pat,
but considering no big investment from Liquid,
you'd imagine they keep it.
Now a player down that has to be a certainty.
Let's see, Camel moved towards Heaven,
but it will be diving in to take the space,
ends up losing his life.
A trade at least, but Liquid, a man down,
smoke now blooms.
Spam's not good.
They get close to the spike,
But everybody's fallen and they can't get back up.
12-10, poor Fnatic.
They left it close.
That started to doubt if we were going to see them show up
here today, but two chances to at least lock in a map.
We expected one of their choices to be clean.
That's good, anything but.
They've got to fight tooth and nail for every single one.
Now they sit just one away from taking the lead after this pass. It's crazy.
Oh wow. This is the round the liquid was saving for. The last was a mix by pieces missing.
Those ultimates were kept not expended. They knew they were fighting for OT
unless they pulled off miracles as they have done.
They do have to be wary. Fanatic had been quite happy to go direct into these sites and after a few rounds of B it's
it's seeming like they might rinse and repeat the A site here.
They should have seen the shot go high but that trip is still up towards the right side. Getting anything from it will be difficult.
Perpo the only man close by the drone is keeping him back and they're getting towards the site.
That trip completely avoid did I say that as one gets caught and no punishment
in goes the convergence path though this is liquid's final stand they'll put
everything into it throw it all at the wall and see what sticks crashies stuck
on site out the bias side but the drops one by one traded out from liquid 12 to
11 on the board one more round in regulation for fanatic a fourth map and a chance to still take this series in a flight to
San Diego for Liquid. OT could seal the deal of a 3-0.
Narrow margins to say the least. That had definitely helped out getting that convergence part of the reveal also giving up to everybody at the end.
They had to dump everything. They have no ultimates to play with in this next round.
Okay, Fnatic used a couple of their own, but they definitely have more to play with going into the final round of regulation.
And hey, they had a success on A, they had a failure on A.
But they're looking to continue in that direction once again.
The shock from Perpo didn't land. The second bounce wasn't on.
So the drone clears so much space. They can take presents on the site now. Fnatic getting a little leg up.
Thanks for Miss PC Utility.
The site's already there.
TP coming in as well from Wayne.
This is Liquid.
Playing outside for the retake,
but the spam has already dropped them.
Hold on!
Liquid are fighting back.
Many boots got three.
But out of nowhere,
the Hunter's Fury is all that stands for Fanatic.
Crushies needs to pull out a play like we've never seen before.
And with Wayne tucked in with a judge
and a firing squad on the other side,
Overtime on the horizon and a new dawn with Mini Blue on four!
Liquid haven't given up hope yet! The 3-0 Dream is still alive!
It wouldn't be a series between these two if we didn't have it overtime.
But I have to say I did not think we were getting there.
I want to watch this from Mini Blue's point of view.
Just fully taking over that retake.
He got there early.
He quickly maneuvered his way to the site the second he realized what was going on.
But the fact is, pure insanity on an individual level, MiniBoo now catching up in terms of that scoreboard.
And as you can see, 1,391 days potentially reset to zero if Liquid confined two rounds in a row.
Now for your playing, the game of his life man, it's probably the all tournament he's been doing that
28 and 18, it was Kayak though on the defense that found so much impact at 12 and 3 start
the AWP maybe didn't find its rhythm in every round but he just needs one to give Fnatic that leg up
to put them closer to a map 4 and to at least take the pressure off
As now it really feels like liquid just moments away from that 3-0, knocking on the door and already this crack showing with Booster down.
This crack has become far too big to manage. Everything slipping into it, the hopes and dreams of Fnatic to break that curse.
They might be ending here.
I have a legendary liquid lower bracket runs
Something we've seen so many times out the under pressure. He stunned up but has managed to hide in the corner
He is completely isolated completely alone. It's only gonna be the one they needed more from that
Camo, he's had a quiet game
This attack ground would certainly belong to him and crashes is even just trying to escape away
Shockdarts into the corner. Utility being sent in to deny and a swing surely coming. The second
proper has the contact. He doesn't even need the swing. Doesn't even need the hell. Nice shot from
Cratchy, but there's no more of that. Liquid. One round away from three zeroing
Fanatic and taking themselves to Santiago. And in this round as well the
adaptations clear that peak from Nats signifies they know you're set up rather
Althea's had success that we said how dangerous it's been in previous matches
They saw it here as well and then Nats waits for the flash once it pops he
swings and the trade is there immediately very well handled and if they
get another overtime something for Fnatic to consider but now's not the time
to think about that the defense that might have been the last time you get to
They play it. Fanatic have to fight for it. They have to earn another shot as liquid stand on the precipice of a 3-0 victory over Fanatic that we have not seen for a long, long time.
What is their decision?
On both sides of the map, they've been able to get in.
They've been able to take space, they've been able to even get into a post-bump.
Those retakes, those fierce, fast retakes out from Liquid have been a nightmare.
They've sent crashes over towards this A-side to drive.
We've seen this before. Send it through.
Shockdarts to destroy.
Purple not calling for help though. He's seen nothing else.
They've left three players into the back of this B site, waiting for the push to come in.
In fact, a fourth, now rotating over. Fanatic walking straight into the trap.
How much could Kaiak do? It's nothing, but both are there with the trade.
Even on a stacked site, they're managing to hold on.
As Vecash is there with another.
Spike planted.
Not dead in the water just yet. Nats misses the shot to start as well.
Fnatic might just have bought themselves that extra little bit of time another shot
and a squad that was never 3-0ed them never looked this dominant in a matchup
another overtime guaranteed and now we looked it up defensive setup I feel like
we must see a change coming as liquid last round two rounds ago seemed to have
it all figured out. This was the perfect read as well from Liquid. You have four players on a site
that Fnatic are walking into and again it's a solid one from there catching more ways than one.
A brilliant flash that probably should have got them the opener but even then it's his
fragging power that clears out the back of that site. This time Alphia is playing much
from the back of Kaiak if not, that's Nats dealt with in the first few seconds.
Yeah, a little taste of their own medicine there.
The early aggression that Liquid have brought to every map so far.
Well, now on the defense, Fnatic pull it out.
Maybe when it's least expected as a result, the 5v4.
Camo has been able to pull back advantages, create so much space,
but they are grouping up to deal with them.
Nice work by Crashies to trade it out.
Numbers still in favor of Fnatic,
but no mistakes can be made here.
These players on Liquid have already,
even individually, won rounds like this
and now they're together.
Great damage from Wayne.
It's starting to look spooky and around.
Fnatic were favored in Liquid,
somehow still have a fight in them.
Crashes will be spotted operator on the retake,
also not ideal, but might work out.
If they attempt to get aggressive,
it's a mid-shot.
BD2, just taking over.
Again, a quick double.
Blink, can you miss it?
Crash is only on 42 HP. He's been planned on.
Popo's coming in from behind. He is locked in in a fight.
And he doesn't even know he's already lost. Surely!
Wayne won't close it before he even gets backstabbed.
And what was the solid start to the round? Still!
Goes in Liquid's favour. Another chance to close.
So heartbreaking. Four for that.
If they let this slip, not just being in a position where they were one round away from making it to San Diego yesterday or one round away, twice from closing this map out, from continuing the series from keeping up the good fight, but now, again, they have to climb back.
A team known for playing from behind while they're behind in the map behind in the series and it looks like their look could be running out.
13 of 14 and a slow paced attack but the same for liquid we've not seen much
from this defense in terms of aggression in this round which is yeah it's scary if
you're fanatic what are they up to now last time out
fanatic walked right into the trap three player setup still remains on B with
Miniboo being that rotator the spike set up postured towards A and I wonder if
they're gonna try and almost double down on last time. Oh they sold the ruse in
one direction and then went back but in fact his liquid have just stopped moving
they've stopped over rotating and now Miniboo even starts going back in the
other direction it's the same again they're gonna walk into a stacked site
with four players for the second time in a row.
Reveal just went up there deep in AMA.
Now it's gonna be five Liquid, no, the hits coming in.
They've read it.
Fanatic's playbook sometimes open.
30 seconds left.
An open view of Team Liquid, but they've got the opening
and another Kayak.
They put numbers here, but that's just more targets
for Kayak's practice.
Purple finds Rander.
It's done after 14 to 14.
any other overtime fanatic clinging on by their fingertips.
That is the second time they have walked into a fully stacked base.
They were almost five and come out almost looking easier than any other round.
Like this was just utility being thrown in as much as possible to keep crying the chance to find the kills.
And he got every single one they needed.
That's what the fuck...
Yeah, Alph is expecting to have some late-round impact and there's nothing left to do.
A good problem to have especially at this stage of the game. Fanatic fighting again.
For that fourth map. For a chance at the reverse sweep and it will be
liquid, quickly moving to this A site. They have hit the gas pedal and their foot's not coming off
but Kayak at least trades out the first fight.
Yeah, cool, swing up.
Wayne wanted to make a play, and now he's taken over to look at to do the damage,
but he's been dealt with with Miniboo standing.
It always feels like there's hope going for the drone,
getting them at least a little bit of information both to take it a deeper angle,
but left with a solo fight, that operator looking to get back in,
and now all that remains is Miniboo.
We've seen magical moments from him all the way through this map,
But on 70 HP this might just have to be the best of them and he has to go moving the second this
attack. That's not happening. For the first time in a while Fanatic now have themselves an advantage
and they go on to the attack which hey, might as well just hit B again.
It could be third time lucky for them as well. The third chance they've had to close out this map
while Liquid have been offered. Many opportunities here recently in OT.
Since Fanatic had the opportunity, you're 33-21 out, but nobody is accusing you of chilling.
Not a soul out there.
15-14, Liquid won't be taking it chill either.
A timeout call for them as now they face potentially a map 4.
I'm almost wondering what they're going to say here because in the last two defensive
they've had. They have perfectly read their opponent. They have got it bang on. They just
lost every fight. Like it's not even like you can go like, oh yeah, we had the misreader,
we made a misplay. We got wrecked by Kayak. Like that was the last one. The round before
it was Vekash. So obviously I'm guessing this is more of just a talk about maybe an idea,
a change up that they can make in that setup on B. But also then it allows the time for
the mind games on the other side. Do we make a change or do we just keep going for that
B site here it has been so successful for fanatic again. I almost want to look back to how liquid started up the series if it ain't broke
Don't fix it
Well fanatic is certainly
shown their experience and the value of it here a team that
Because of the lessons they've been taught in the past they never give up
And Attitude's gotten them far. Now the reverse sweep needed to make it to San
Diego but it starts with this round here. It starts with this map for Team Liquid.
They hope it ends here but a big battle needed and again we're gonna see this
three-man stack up towards B but this time Liquid have doubled down. They've
brought the Cypher utility from A to B and if this drone sees nobody that could
Send a well and a spiraling, but that's huge information.
Yeah, the thing is, I don't think it's gonna stop Fnatic.
They've already got two players, but it's about timing.
Oh, look at the hesitation.
Currently, the defensive side are running around in the spawn.
They're going back and forth in case they've lost mid control.
Maybe thinking this is fate and it's not.
Again, it's an open of a can.
If he turned by MidiBoo, no, just the one this time.
Camo already filling in the gap.
Needs to turn around, try and find them on the side, and the escape might not be there.
He's made it back into the smoke, and now Nats has found another!
Somehow, they once again find an advantage.
Oh, Nats onto Alpha, and Wayne wrapping around.
This one's done! Over time, 15 to 15, and another required!
How many OTs can we find here on Abyss?
It seems endless with the back and forth.
I have to say, crazy for Perkman to stand there with the arrow drawn.
He passed it off the wall, but he didn't quite expect to see two players on the other side.
The fact that Nats chooses this round to step up though, it's a statement from Team Liquid.
LoL has looked stressed.
Let's call back to the end of the last map where he was giggling and saying, what are we doing?
Well, they were winning at 12-10.
Now it's certainly getting to him a little bit.
do a little bit yeah that's is not doing 360 shorty kills anymore but still some
of the stuff he does is just as ridiculous well that was the first
defensive round for either side OT all is forgotten the rounds before mean
nothing the hero plays mean nothing the game starts once again and just look
Look at where the Alphience currently sat, just in the spawn trying to get the right
read on where their opponents are and maybe put their turret into the right place.
Come on, looking for that same early battle his opponents found just moments ago and
well his ability to escape has dissipated but he's just left.
Now he's just slowly back it off.
There's a fight with Nats going down inside of mid.
They've lost their fine protection.
It's time to speed up and right into the vice setup.
And it's nice and passive as well from Alpha, like you said.
Kayak instead, the one to play off that utility.
He said that there'd be trouble when it came to this.
This time, the change from Fnatic, a huge success.
And the last is impressive start.
They have an even more impressive finish, a 1 versus 5,
with 20 seconds left of the clock, a spike down as well.
It's impossible, it has to be. You can't even take that refract.
In the end of the round, on time alone.
16 to 15, and another shot for Fadatic.
That is the 2,000 kill for Camo, but...
It puts them now at a round deficit.
And the main takeaway for me is,
and a little moments ago, we were looking at Alfa,
so far and above, sort of anyone in the server,
but an OT Kayak has just gone mad, like the 3K entry for the sides.
That's my side, that's my side.
The defensive hold there, as he said, this is like...
The deadliest of Juo's on that fanatic side have stepped up.
The question is, can they close?
That has been the problem so far.
Either side have had their opportunities for Liquid.
It would be taking them to that first Masters of the Year.
For Fnatic, it's the first of three maps needed.
And a monumental fight back, and they go back to the B site.
It's where they've been successful, but they need Klayak to stay alive.
And while Vekage is gone...
Oh, so his boasters fell as well!
Falling like Domino's Alpha and Crashes!
Left behind the smokes, way out of the play, and...
Ooh.
What the rigorous urges needed even that kill on the Nats unlikely to bring them anywhere closer
Without it and the flank now known to be coming through they are boxed in
They've got to come out swinging with no real chance. It's 16 to 16
You know, let's go again another overtime these teams impossible to separate
But again as these rounds for liquid, it's like well, we got two more, you know, we can still win this
We got two more you know whatever the static you were dying every round has got to be burning through their late-game energy
But you don't mean you don't care if you go through it map. He said five
There's no way he means that absolutely none
shot up early. A nice little pop flash, a nice little bit of tickle damage to start off the round.
Three players already here on A. Two watching for Nats' luck as well. And while they're not
going to push now, they're going to have to wait a moment with losing those abilities on the way in.
Yeah, luckily, I don't think Camel had put anything down. You saw him about to use his
outlaw. He is literally hunting for this uplaw. God, that's nuts. The Fudge was just the deal
with a guy with no armor. The headshot. Well, that was the cherry on top of the cake.
They're talking about Fnatic burning the middle of the court. The only shot that's slain in
is with a bow and arrow. Finally, that guy just gets in there for one, but Team Liquid
I can't believe they've gotten away with that snuffing out the flames of fanatic at 17 to 16 match series and Santiago point for Liquid.
This was crazy as well, just the reaction show from Cabo.
But find me another man, I got a pick me on that.
You see him buying out Lore and OT and pushmen and you go yeah actually that's probably the right play.
But there is no one else, there's no one that does that.
And that was purely to counter Kayak.
Killing Alpha in response was just nuts.
But again, it is another moment where Liquid looked to close.
And that's where we're going again.
It's one thing to look at, the gall of Liquid,
the defensive aggression that we saw,
but that play right there underlines it.
It's what Nats is known for.
He's had to temper his aggression over time.
People figured out how he likes to play and we always said that would be his downfall once people realize well obviously
He's always behind you, but he's reinvented himself again and again and now as a leader
He's looking to keep up the streak of
Internationals a strong start but fanatic not pulling any blows this means as much to them as it does to liquid
But it might not matter at three versus two camo
Riding some checks for himself on backside
And it looks like his hand can pass the main team, and he team to sustain.
They have delivered a defeat to Fnatic.
That Fnatic have never seen in this rivalry.
Back to 2021, a traded series by flawless best of five,
is one for the history books.
And they fell into this little bracket.
I sat there looking at this squad going, well, not this time.
There's no way. There's absolutely no down way.
This team runs it back, five games in a row, versus a new Bill Superteam versus a legendary Fanatic,
versus Midi Boos' brother and a bunch of players he's very used to, but they went through them one by one by one.
one seemingly getting better as they went I saw the first map yesterday and I was
thinking about maybe this is the end of the journey and then in their games
today whether it was a dominant victory on their opponents mattress with a new
comp whether it was ridiculous plays coming out on fire or whether it was
an insane OT run back and forth again and again this team digs deep this team
improves and this team deserves this spot over at Masters.
It feels like the first time we've seen this many rookies this many new faces going to the
international, to the global stage. EMEA with PBL and Mates round out with some experience
on Team Liquid but still some new faces to that stage.
Liquid with a dominant 3-0, best of 5.
They take the final and the final ticket to Santiago, is it?
Yeah, it's definitely feeling like a special moment for different reasons for players down
on that stage.
For the coaching staff of course, this is a rebuild that had some risks about it, they
made every single international last year still opted to bring in some youngsters, bringing
players like Wayne, who we hadn't seen in the tier one before, getting miniboo after leaving a
heretics roster he'd been with for a couple of years and turn him into something new evolving
as his brother said, take purple back from that tier two and rise him up to a man who finally
makes an international after so many years. They kept a couple of pieces and that's of course,
there was no doubt the ability of this van Kammer back to his trusty jeweless as well
but it seems like once again his liquid squad is heading to an international hey if they do the
trifecta once more who is to doubt the players who is to doubt the coaches who's to doubt everybody
behind the scenes this team is made for international events no matter who is in their path no it
certainly seems to be the case. Team Liquid with an impressive and historic
victory over rivals Fanatic. The kickoff curse continues for FNC. Meanwhile,
Liquid keep on making it to these internationals. Master San Diego is
going to have a lot of representation from the MEA. The world better watch out,
especially for these two. Lou, take it away with Natsum Master Wayne.
Thank you, Tom and Mitch. Once again, the odds mean nothing in the city.
I mean, a team liquid of the third and last team that we're sending to Masters in Thiago.
Congratulations, Wayne and Nat, first of all.
And Nat, you guys came back from so far.
You know, you dropped in the lower bracket almost two weeks ago,
and then you made the historical run.
So I was wondering, you know, how did you keep believing in the process,
taking each game at a time and managing to bring such an incredible performance today?
I think we just believed and from the experience last year and I'm personally for me
I mean everyone most of the people knows that I have a curse that I'm one year
qualifying one not and I actually decided this year to not be that year and I
wanted to prove the opposite even though the start of the tournament wasn't
the greatest for me but at least the curse is broken but for the team I think
everyone just believed after the game against Wolf that the game against Wolf
the games against Giants when we start changing the stuff and they see the potential and overall
I mean there is no much point to just not believe in yourself and just doubt yourself and feel the
fear because there is no point of that you win today you lose tomorrow it's a competition yeah so
you just anyway you play you work every day and we just that's it boys were no fear of losing
only grinding in that you know gave you success today in way this has been incredible right three
weeks ago you were considered as a rookie the team even played without you
their first game you know and now you're in Masters so how did that journey feel
and do you have any advice you want to give maybe to rookies that may be very
envious of your position right now I think if I were to give advice to rookies
I think it's just like just like no have some confidence in yourself and like
just do whatever you want.
And like, the past few games, we changed a lot.
And I think now everyone is like so comfortable.
We're just playing our comfort agents, right?
And we're just playing as a team, like with confidence.
And like, we're not letting the enemies play their game.
So yeah, that's why we wanted it.
Be confident and have fun, right?
That's the key maybe to success.
Especially on Coral.
You guys made a lot from the Coral Compa.
By the way, that was really fun.
And Nat, I got to chat with Wayne earlier on this day.
And speaking about your words, another speech is that you give at the beginning of the games
and how important they are for him, that you kind of his mentor in some ways.
So how has it been, you know, being Wade's teammate?
Why do you think he's an incredible teammate?
No, he's just an incredible teammate.
He has incredible talent, he has incredible work ethics, I would say.
And it's like, even though he came from the tier two region, he came from the different
region and not tier two region sorry from the tier two from the procedure yeah
from another region and he a lot of players when they come to tier one they
take it as granted and I wouldn't say that's about Wayne and even without
trying to make him like a good or something but that's true because there
is a lot of people nowadays they come and they think oh I'm in tier one and I'm
just not gonna do more and I'm just gonna do what you I do in tier two and I
I think he's the opposite right now.
He's working the most.
He's trying to show himself.
And I think that's how it's supposed to be.
Grinding mentality, right?
Not taking things for granted.
And my last question is going to be about,
there's one more game going on in VCT,
NA tonight, which is going to be energy versus MIBA.
I want to have your prediction.
Who will be the last team to join you in Santiago voice?
I mean, it's the GOK quiz playing.
Right, that's why I lost the other question.
I cannot say anything else, right?
I mean, I think energy.
What about you, do you agree with him?
I think I agree, yeah.
Energy and you're going to be rooting for them even though Kiko is playing with them?
I want to play against them.
Oh, you want to play against them?
He wants to prove Kiko that he wasn't the best.
Right, I love that.
We're going to see, of course, if energy makes it.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Congratulations again and I'm sure you will make us very proud in Santiago,
but before calling me today, let's...
We're going to make a picture with a trophy.
Yes, do you want to get a picture?
Can we get a picture with a trophy?
Yes, of course.
Yes, of course.
Is anyone making a picture?
Maybe people in the crowd, you want to get a picture?
I think the guy already finished his work today.
You're going to get a picture anyways, but before we call it a day, let's toss it back to Jinny for our drone show for stage one.
Thank you for having us. See you very soon. Bye bye.
Thank you, Lu, Natz and Wayne. Welcome everyone to the VTT EMEA stage one draw show.
We have to set the stage for next stage, so I'm joined with Jankrut from Riot.
team. You're going to be
showing us a team. So the
rules are actually pretty
simple. The 12 teams will be
drawn into two groups, Alpha
and Omega teams are seated
based on their kickoff final
standings. They're then going
to be split into six seating
tiers from 11 12 up to first
and second the draw starts with
the lowest seated tier and
proceeds upward. The first team
that we're going to be
drawing will be put into group
Alpha and then the remaining
mega pretty self-explanatory we're gonna let you start with blue one
yeah shall we
for esports we'll be entering group alpha
and that leaves of course Pacific
All right, pool number two, let's go.
Either KC or Ulf, which one will it be?
KC, joining group alpha.
That leaves, of course, Ulf eSports into group omega.
into group omega.
Pool number three is going to have Navi and GX to see who's going to join group alpha.
Navi, okay.
And that means GX is going to group omega.
Yeah, this is going pretty quickly.
Heretics or Vitality?
Heretics.
Into group alpha.
And Vitality.
Oh my God.
That was not on purpose, guys.
What happens?
Don't worry about it.
50-50 chance anyway. Fanatic and Liquid are going to be in pool number five.
That's Liquid. That's Liquid. Joining group Alpha.
That leaves fanatic in omega.
Pool six BVL and Joe mates top seeds of VCT.
I am a kick off. Oh, who's going to join group alpha?
Oh, I think I saw. Yes, this gentleman.
And that leaves BBL, our final team in group Omega,
alongside fanatic vitality, GX, off and Pacific.
And group alpha is going to be gentlemen.
the team. We have a lot of
athletes, liquid heretics,
Navi and KC as well as foot
eSports. Thank you so much.
Thank you for making this
possible. Thank you. Everybody
else as well for joining us
during kickoff. Let us know
what you think about the
groups that we have for stage
one of VCT EMEA. That's it for
now. But make sure that you
support our teams in Master
Santiago. It is going to be the
pretty soon but before we say goodbye we're gonna leave you with the razor end
of the highlights and we'll see you again in Master Santiago. Let's take one. Bye!
Liquid take their opponent's choice!
Quick to Liquid, I'll plant it for the centers.
Come on then!
Come on! Push us! Push us!
How are you guys losing that?
More, more, more!
Let's go boys! Fuck them up!
Good job!
Yeah, you make me sit down a lot!
I don't know what's going on, I think it's destroyed there, that's it.
No way from Santiago!
you
you
you
you
you
you
you
you
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